One of many largest coal mines in Siberia’s Kemerovo area has suspended operations amid extreme monetary misery, leaving a whole bunch of staff with out pay and highlighting rising instability in Russia’s coal heartland.
The Spiridonovskaya mine, which employed round 900 individuals, suspended manufacturing in early June because of an absence of financing, Interfax reported Monday, citing the Kemerovo area’s coal trade ministry.
Wage, trip and severance arrears now whole roughly 90 million rubles (about $1.17 million), the ministry informed Interfax.
In late Could, the mine’s administration introduced the dismissal of 760 staff, citing a essential scarcity of funding funds. By the top of June, roughly 120 staff had resigned voluntarily.
About 130 staff stay on website to take care of important techniques on the mine, which produced round 214,000 metric tons of coal earlier this 12 months earlier than halting operations.
First Deputy Governor Andrei Panov, head of the Kemerovo regional authorities, acknowledged Friday that Spiridonovskaya’s staff had not been paid in over a month.
He beforehand mentioned that 20 of the area’s 151 coal enterprises had been getting ready to chapter.
“At this time, in a time of disaster, coal miners are compelled to outlive by any means mandatory — chopping prices, boosting productiveness and in some instances putting staff on unpaid go away or laying them off altogether,” Panov wrote.
Spiridonovskaya reported 1.5 billion rubles ($19.5 million) in income in 2023, although it nonetheless posted a internet lack of 422 million rubles ($5.5 million).
In 2024, losses quadrupled to 1.8 billion rubles ($23.4 million) regardless of revenues rising to 2.2 billion rubles ($28.6 million).
The shutdown of Spiridonovskaya comes amid a broader downturn within the regional coal trade.
Eight mines closed throughout the Kuzbass area in 2024 and almost 500 staff have gone unpaid for a number of months, Kemerovo Governor Ilya Seredyuk reported in February.
The workforce at many different websites has been decreased.
Roughly 250 staff had been laid off on the Inskaya mine alone, regional Coal Minister Oleg Tokarev mentioned in January.
The Kemerovo area, additionally referred to as the Kuzbass, is Russia’s dominant coal-producing area, accounting for almost 60% of the nation’s whole onerous coal output, 80% of coking coal and 100% of essentially the most helpful grades, based on official figures.
The area’s coal trade employs greater than 110,000 individuals, over 70% of all the Russian coal workforce.
