Zhergalan Coal Mine

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Zhergalan Coal Mine (Джергалан, Жыргалан) is an operating coal mine in Zhyrgalan, Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Zhergalan Coal Mine	Zhyrgalan, Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan	42.60444, 79.02764 (approximate)

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

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1959	–

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
0.1	0.0001	2025	Underground	–	4.68	494.0*	461.0*

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
18.0	2023	–	–	Subbituminous	Thermal	–

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
Shakhta Zhergalan JSC	Shakhta Zhergalan JSC [100.0%]	Kyrgyzstan

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

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
–	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.1	–	0.0

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

The Zhergalan mine (Жыргалан, Джергалан) is an UNDERGROUND coal mine in Issyk-Kyl region, Kyrgyzstan. The mine was mentioned as one of the sources of growth in coal production in the Draft Concept for the Development of the Fuel and Energy Sectors of the Kyrgyz Republic until 2030, published in 2020.

The mine was originally commissioned in 1959. In September 2012, there was a fire at the mine, after which mining was stopped and the mine was flooded. In August 2023 it was reported that production restarted at Zhergalan coal mine, after having been closed for over 12 years.

The mine supplies coal to Issyk-Kul region in the winter period, reducing the load on the Kara-Keche coal mine and saving on the transportation costs to the city of Karakol and surrounding areas.As of August 2023, the mine was producing 100-120 tonnes per day. The mine's target design capacity is 0.1 million tonnes,, although actual production in recent decades reportedly did not exceed 50 thousand tonnes per year. Total cumulative production of the mine exceeded 4 million tonnes of coal during the period of its operation.

The mine apparently remains (partly) flooded and coal extraction is via constructed tunnels from a different entry point.

Unclear Ownership

The ownership and operator status of the mine is unclear from available sources. One source identifies the operator as JSC Shakhta Zhergalan (ОАО Шахта Жыргалан), the entity originally established in 1996 upon the mine's corporatisation, with 611 shareholders and Narynbek Baisakov listed as director in the company registry as of 2023. However, other sources indicate that actual mining operations since 2022 have been conducted by Business Invest Company LLC (ОсОО Бизнес Инвест Компани), with Kubatbek Kerimov as general director, which received a $1.733 million concessional loan from the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund to purchase equipment for the mine. The mining licence of the original JSC Shakhta Zhergalan was annulled in February 2017.

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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.