Bogatyr Coal Mine (Kazakhstan)

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Bogatyr Coal Mine (Kazakhstan) (разрез Богатырь) is an operating coal mine in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Bogatyr Coal Mine (Kazakhstan)	Pavlodar, Kazakhstan	51.655495, 75.4336006 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1970	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
10	31.43	2023	Surface	Open Pit	134.0	300.0	1260*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
1200.0	2023	–	Ekibastuz	Bituminous	Thermal	Ekibastuz-1 power station; Reftinskaya GRES power station

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Bogatyr Komir LLP [100%]	Samruk-Energo JSC [50.0%]; United Company RUSAL PJSC [50.0%]	Kazakhstan, Russia

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Saleable	30.8	34.9	33.8	33.4	34.6	32.5	31.43

Expansion/Extension

Table 6: Project status

* Added capacity of a coal mine refers to the enhancement in the mine's production capabilities beyond its initial production capacity.

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Project Phase	Added Capacity (Mtpa)*	Start Year
Proposed	Test Operation	Expansion	–	5	2023

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2025 release.

Background

Bogatyr Coal Mine (Разрез Богатырь) is a surface coal mine near Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan (Pavlodar region), Kazakhstan.

It is not to be confused with Bogatyr Coal Mine in Russia.

The mine is the largest coal producer in the country, accounting for approximately 40% of all the coal produced in the country, and 70% produced in the Ekibastuz basin. Bogatyr Coal Mine is owned and operated by Bogatyr Komir, a joint venture between Samruk Energy and United Company RUSAL.

The company conducts mining at two surface mines located close to each other, Bogatyr and the smaller Severny coal mine. Bogatyr mine operated sections 5,6,9 and 10 of the coal field, while Severny operates sections 1,2,3 and 4. Operating and technical indicators are often presented and reported jointly for the two surface mines.

The Bogatyr mine was built in nine stages from 1965 to 1979.

In autumn of 1996, the national company Ekibastuzkomir JSC (which owned Bogatyr mine up until that point) was privatized by the Kazakh government, and the American company Access Industries Inc. bought the 70%-property of Bogatyr Mine and Stepnoy coal mine (a coal mine in Russia's Khakasiya Republic, owned by Russian Coal); the name was changed to Bogatyr Access Komyr, LLP. Later on, the American company sold the mines to the Russian company United Company RUSAL, the world’s largest vertically integrated aluminium producer. In 2008, Bogatyr was transferred to the management of a joint venture of Kazakhstan Samruk Energy and the Russian United Company RUSAL. And in March 2009, Bogatyr Access Komir LLP was renamed as Bogatyr Komir LLP.

The main consumers of coal from Bogatyr Komir mines are the Ekibastuz-1 power station in Kazakhstan and Reftinskaya GRES power station in Russia, the share of shipments to which was more than 45% in 2018. Other consumers include Ekibastuz-2 power station, the CHP plants in Almaty, Karaganda TPS-3 power station, and other coal-fired power plants in Kazakhstan.

Guinness World Record

With an output of 56.8 million tonnes of coal in 1985, the Bogatyr mine entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world's largest single coal mine. (However, since then this level of production has not been sustained.) Over 1 billion tonnes of coal have been extracted since the start of operations to 2018.

In 2020 joint production with Severny coal mine was 43.4 million tonnes, of which 33.4 million tonnes was contributed by the Bogatyr mine. Joint production in 2021 was 44.6 million tonnes in 2021 and 42.5 million tonnes in 2022. About 10 Mt were contributed by the Severny coal mine. The decrease in joint production in 2022 by 5% was due to lower sales in the domestic market (-7% to 32.3Mt, reason unknown) while exports to Reftinskaya in Russia increased by 3% to ca 10.1Mt.

Expansion

From 2020, Bogatyr Komir stated its plans to modernize its Bogatyr Mine and expand its annual production capacity to 40 million tonnes of coal per annum. The company has taken out a number of loans from the Eurasian Development Bank for the purpose of achieving this goal. The project entails a switch to an automated conveyer use. The head of Samruk-Energy noted that "the need for a fundamental change in the technology of coal mining at the “Bogatyr” open-pit mine is connected with reaching the depth of mining works, whereby the existing coal transportation scheme is inefficient, and the main mining equipment has reached the end of its service life and needs to be updated."

As of February 2022, the installation of metal structures, pre-assembly of all equipment, and concrete/foundation work was 90% complete, and the construction and commissioning of electrical equipment was underway. Completion of construction and installation works was scheduled for Q3 of 2022, while commissioning was scheduled for Q4 of 2022. The additional production is possible through the mine's "cyclical-and-continuous method for coal mining. After the launch of this new technology and commissioning of the project, production capacity is expected to increase from 32 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes at the Bogatyr mine.

In December 2022, the company announced the commissioning of the cyclical-and-continuous production complex and the production of the first batches using the complex. A conveyor complex with a total length of 11.5 kilometers, 4 crushers, 2 stackers, 2 blending loaders and an automatic coal loading point into wagons were built. However as per Samruk Energy's 2022 Annual Report, in the 2022/2023 winter period coal production is still performed using the old method, with a parallel commissioning of the new complex. Transition to the cyclical-and-continuous production was planned to be completed in the third quarter of 2023. The project was financed by Eurasian Development Bank.

As per 2023 annual report of Samruk Energy, the cyclic-flow project was completed in December 2023. As per November 2024 reporting, the cyclic-flow project must be approaching its final stage in 2024. The company planned to produce 34.7 million tonnes in 2024 from the Bogatyr mine, and 46.7 million tonnes together with Severny Coal Mine

However actual joint production in 2024 was below the plan at 42.6 million tonnes, which was even slightly below the 2023 level. Overall coal production in Kazakhstan reduced by 3.2% in 2024. Lower exports of coal to Russia as well as logistical problems of shipping coal from Kazakhstan via Russia to Eirope were named as the main reasons of lower coal production, in addition to lower coal prices in the global markets.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.