Citing a top official in Russia's Khakass region, TASS reported:

Given that its main freight artery to the east is insufficient for large coal exports, Russia has held discussions on the feasibility of creating an alternative transportation railroad from southern Siberia to China via Mongolia.

Russia's “Eastern Polygon” (Eastern Polygon), which includes the Trans-Siberian and Baikal-Amur Mainlines, has become one of the main routes for transporting coal and other exports eastward. The Eastern Polygon, including Baikal-Amur Mainlines, has become one of the main routes for transporting coal and other exports eastward. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet expanding demand.

According to the regional official, the construction of the railroad corridor will solve the problem of insufficient capacity in the context of large-scale redirection of freight flows.

In addition, he noted, the railroad may also provide an opportunity to increase the production of power coal from the Beyskoye coal mine and ease the flow of large volumes of freight from Kuzbass and the Republic of Tuva.

Beyskoye is one of Russia's most promising high-quality thermal coal mines. Previously, it was reported that its reserves are estimated at 4 billion tons.

Due to insufficient throughput capacity, the government of the Khakass region and Russian Railways signed an agreement on exporting coal to the east by rail, with a set quota for 2024 of 6.5 million tons.

There are eight coal mining enterprises in the Khakass region, which produced 12.6 million tons of coal in the first half of 2024.In 2020, the region exported 11.5 million tons of coal to the east, but by 2022 exports decreased to 4.38 million tons, while after the agreement with Russian Railways, exports increased to 6.1million tons.

Article Source：sxcoal.com