Total of 777 boreholes established in search of lignite in Zapad field in Kostolac – Tender for 47 more announced

Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), branch TE-KO Kostolac, has announced a tender for 47 more exploratory boreholes in the Western Kostolac (“Zapad”) field.

This is the second phase of exploratory works in the Zapad field, EPS’ “hope” for securing the necessary quantities of coal for the needs of Serbian power plants.

The works ordered through the tender, worth 113.5 million dinars (about EUR 970,000), include geodetic locating and exploratory drilling of 47 wells at 1,240 and 3,225 meters, technical coal analyses and coal tests, as well as hydrogeological works.

For more information about the tender (in Serbian), which expires on October 22, see HERE.

EPS also ordered 65 exploratory boreholes last year, in June, and previously 89, while 411 boreholes had already been drilled at the future Zapad mine, and 165 additional ones since then. With the latest ones, that is a total of 777 boreholes.

So far, lignite reserves of around 280 million tons have been confirmed in the Western Kostolac mine.

The Kostolac coal deposit is formally divided into the eastern, central and western parts. Currently, coal exploitation is carried out in the eastern part of the basin, at the Drmno open-pit mine, while in the central part of the basin, coal exploitation has been completed at the Klenovnik and Cirikovac open-pit mines. And given that the Drmno mine does not have sufficient exploitable coal reserves to meet all the needs for the projected lifetime of the thermal power facilities, it is necessary to open another open-pit mine in the Kostolac coal basin.

The construction of the Western Kostolac open-pit mine, worth EUR 400 million, is planned in two phases.

In the first phase, the projected annual capacity will be 3,000,000 tons of coal for the needs of the thermal power plants in Obrenovac. The second phase would include the gradual inclusion of equipment from the Drmno mine that would be decommissioned, and the coal would also be used for the Kostolac B thermal power plant.

B. P.

Elektroprivreda Srbije ad Beograd

Elektroprivreda Srbije

EPS

TE KO kostolac

TE Kostolac

TENT Obrenovac

TE Kostlac B

Zapad mine

Western Kostolac

new Kostolac mine

coal

lignite

exploratory boreholes