About 25-30 percent of coal mining in Kyrgyzstan remains in shadow, director of the Kyrgyz State Agency on Geology and Mineral Resources Kapar Kurmanaliev informed the meeting of the Fuel, Energy Complex and Subsurface Management Committee on Tuesday, April 7.

He said that in general there was issued about 144 coal mining licenses. Half of them were distributed for the development and another part - for geological investigations of deposits. “The analysis has shown that the existing potential of the republic allows to mine up to 1.5 million tons annually, but the process is restrained by the low sales rate,” Kurmanaliev said.

He pointed that the coal mining reached 363 thousand tons in 2007 and 200 thousand of them remained at the depots. “But in 2008 only 40 thousands out of mined 492 thousand tons remained. It means that energetic problems somehow improved the sales of coal,” he added.

About 30 percent of coal mining (over 120-150 thousand tons annually) remains in shadow-out of state control, taxes. The Kyrgyz State Geology Agency plans to review all issued licenses. “We intend to consolidate them and transfer to investors who will really develop the deposits,” the director said.