Vorkutinskaya Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Vorkutinskaya Coal Mine (Шахта Воркутинская) is an operating coal mine in Vorkuta, Vorkuta Urban, Komi, Russia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Vorkutinskaya Coal Mine	Vorkuta, Vorkuta Urban, Komi, Russia	67.525242, 64.021282 (exact)

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

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1973	–

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
1.8	2.0	2023	Underground	–	–	448.0*	625.0*

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
29.0	2024	–	–	Bituminous	Met	Steel Plant

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
Vorkutaugol JSC	Anthracite JSC [85.0%]; Holding Company Dominant LLC [15.0%]	Russia

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

Note: The asterisk (*) indicates that the value is an estimated figure based on various factors, including the company's forecasted or reported monthly or quarterly production data, etc.

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Saleable	–	–	1.83	2.12	1.9*	1.91*	2	–	–

Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2026 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

Vorkutinskaya coal mine (Шахта Воркутинская) is an operating underground mine in the Komi Republic, Russia. The mine is operated by Vorkutaugol. Vorkutaugol JSC used to be owned by Severstal, but the company was sold in the end of 2021 to Russkaya Energiya, whose majority shareholder is Roman Trotsenko. However Severstal was to remain the key consumer of Vorkutaugol coking coal - the terms of the sale agreement included a long-term offtake contract guaranteeing Severstal's supply of raw material.

In 2023, Vorkutisnkaya coal mine was said to be the best performing mine of Vortkutaugol with production of over 2 million tonnes. At the same total 2023 coal production of Vorkutaugol declined by 26% to 7.2 million tonnes.

Incidents and Safety Violations

In 2013, a methane explosion at the mine killed 18 miners. At the time, about 250 miners were underground, about 800 metres beneath the surface.

In August 2022 an accident occurred involving a transportation cabin, 7 people were taken to hospital. The work of the mine was suspended temporarily.

One fatality was reported in January 2025.

In December 2025, the Vorkuta city court suspended mining operations at the mine's Zapolyarnaya-2 section for up to 90 days after Rostechnadzor detected dangerous gas levels.

Vorkutaugol

As of 2021, Vorkutaugol accounted for about 11% of the country's coking coal production. Vorkutaugol operates in the Pechora coal basin. The company consists of four underground mines, one open pit mine and several auxiliary enterprises. Vorkutaugol delivered 8.8 million tonnes of production in 2021. In 2022 Vorkutaugol increased coal production to 9.7 million tonnes. According to a media source from December 2021, it is anticipated that the underground mines of Vorkutaugol will be closed in 2030-2036.

2023 coal production of Vorkutaugol declined by 26% and was 7.2 million tonnes. 1H 2024 production was up by 10% reaching 4.2 million tonnes.

Vorkutaugol posted a net loss of 2.3 billion rubles ($25.3 million) in 2024, compared to a profit of 349 million rubles ($3.8 million) in 2023. The losses were consistent with a broader downturn across the Russian coal sector; in 2024, more than half of Russian coal companies were unprofitable, with industry-wide losses reaching 112.6 billion rubles ($1.24 billion), driven by falling global coking coal prices — down around 40% from early 2024 to a three-year low by September 2024 — as well as rising production costs and heavy logistics expenses.

Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources

Global Energy Monitor researchers have identified coal mine boundary/boundaries and potential sources of coal mine methane (CMM) for this mine. These research results can be used to drive CMM attribution and mitigation efforts, particularly when combined with remotely sensed methane plume locations and mine ownership data. Explore the results with the embedded map at the top of this page by clicking on the mine boundary polygon or the CMM placemarkers to reveal more details. A detailed description of this research can be found in Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources. This data is also available as a downloadable companion dataset to the Global Coal Mine Tracker and the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Table SMP1: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data

ID	Mine feature category	Mine feature subcategory	Description	Coordinates precision	Data source date
M0868.B1	mine boundary	underground	Vorkutinskaya coal mine boundary	extracted	2025-11-25 00:00:00
M0868.P1	ventilation system	shaft	Ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-07-17 00:00:00
M0868.P2	ventilation system	shaft	Decommissioned ventilation shafts	extracted	2002-06-22 00:00:00
M0868.P3	degasification system	drainage station	Gas drainage station	extracted	2025-08-08 00:00:00
M0868.P4	ventilation system	shaft	Ventilation shaft	extracted	2025-08-08 00:00:00
M0868.P5	ventilation system	shaft	Decommissioned ventilation shafts	extracted	2002-06-22 00:00:00
M0868.P6	other	slope access or production shaft	Possible slope access or production shaft	extracted	2022-10-04 00:00:00
M0868.P7	ventilation system	shaft	Possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-07-17 00:00:00

Table SMP2: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data (continued)

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Nov 28, 2025

ID	Notes
M0868.B1	The subsoil land-use license relevant to the Vorkutinskaya Coal Mine was identified through the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (Единый государственный реестр юридических лиц, ЕГРЮЛ), using the company’s INN (Taxpayer Identification Number, ИНН), page 15, https://web.archive.org/details/ul-1021100807452-20251125171514 This mine polygon operates under subsoil land-use license СЫК02558ТЭ. The license was issued on July 20, 2015, and is valid until December 31, 2032. The license boundary with geographic coordinates was extracted directly from the NedraExpert portal for license СЫК02558ТЭ, https://web.archive.org/web/20251125154656/https://www.nedraexpert.ru/subsurface/1144751628/1#about.The northwestern edge of the Vorkutinskaya boundary overlaps with the southeastern edge of the Komsomolskaya Coal Mine boundary. The approximate area of this boundary polygon is 29 square km.
M0868.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0868.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.The structures are clearly visible as active shafts in June 2002, fully demolished by June 2005, and consistent with decommissioning by 2009.
M0868.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0868.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0868.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery. The structures are clearly visible in June 2002 imagery and fully removed by June 2005, indicating that the object was demolished and subsequently decommissioned during this period.
M0868.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M0868.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

Associated Coal Mine Methane Mitigation Projects

Some coal mines have installed infrastructure which can use and/or destroy some methane emissions associated with mining. In 2024, the Global Methane Initiative reported that this mine had a mitigation project associated with it. This methodology page describes how GEM classified these projects and linked them with coal mines in the Global Coal Mine Tracker.

Table MM1: Methane mitigation projects

Mitigation Project Name	Project Type	GMI Reported Status	GMI Reported Start Year
Vorkutinskaya Mine Boiler Fuel Project - Russia	utilization	Operational	2009

Methane Plumes Detected Nearby

Global Energy Monitor researchers analyze satellite-detected methane plumes in order to determine whether they have been observed at or near the site of GEM energy assets. The satellite data provider creates imagery of individual methane plumes and estimates their emission rates at the time of observation. GEM has reviewed many of these plume detections against Google Earth imagery and GEM’s own energy infrastructure tracker data. The following table lists methane plumes which are associated with the energy asset or facility based on distance and manual review. (A full description of the analysis process is available in the Global Methane Emitters Tracker methodology wiki page.)

Table M1: Plume details

For additional details on this individual plume identification and others, see the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Observation date	Satellite data provider	Location of plume origin	Methane emissions rate	Additional plume information
2025-04-08T07:40:14+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250408t074014c00s4001-G	67.52624252, 64.01557855	997.1965133 kg/hr	Komi Republic Methane Observation 2025-04-08, 4

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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.