Transnational steel giant ArcelorMittal will continue mining coal in Siberia and will not lay off any miners.
An agreement to this effect has been reached between the company and the regional government of Russia's coal mining region of Kemerovo in Western Siberia.
According to the agreement, ArcelorMittal will invest in the modernisation of the Pervomaiskaya mines to keep it running in accordance with the local environmental and labour laws.
And the local government for its part would ensure the sale of coal produced by ArcelorMittal, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
ArcelorMittal had planned to close the Pervomaiskaya coal complex and retire the miners. In response, the Kemerovo governor, Amana Tuleyev, had sent an angry telegram to promoter Laxmi Mittal to hand over the control of the mine to the government and warned that the license for the exploration and mining of a new prospective coal deposit would be cancelled.
ArcelorMittal owns the Pervomaiskya mine in the town of Beryozovsky and Anzherskoye in Anzhero-Suzhensk in the Kemerovo region's coal basin.
