China intrigued by Russia’s planned rail link to planet’s largest coalfield
A Chinese association reveals it is keeping an eye on a project that aims to unlock potentially trillions of tonnes of the fossil fuel
Russia’s plan to connect the world’s largest coalfield – stretching across the country’s far east region and Siberia – with coastal export ports near the Chinese border has caught the eye of Beijing’s coal industry.
The China Coal Economic Research Association noted in a recent article on its website that Russia intends to build a new rail system to transport coal from the vast Tunguska sedimentary basin, the largest coalfield on Earth by projected reserves.
The state-supervised association said in the article, which was also published on its WeChat account, that the basin is still poorly characterised due to difficulty accessing the region and its harsh climate, but has large coal potential.
According to Moscow’s announcement in October, the railway line will run to Khabarovsk Krai on the far eastern coast – one of the country’s main coal exporting regions that directly borders China’s Heilongjiang province.
The railway will also transport coal from the Elga coal complex – one of the largest deposits of coking coal, which is used primarily in steel production – that is already in operation.
The Tunguska sedimentary basin spans 1 million sq km (386,102 square miles) across Siberia and Russia’s far east region, and has proven coal reserves of 6.4 billion tonnes.
