SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), March 24 (SeeNews) – Bosnian brown coal mine Kakanj raised its net profit almost 10 times to 4.0 million marka ($3.1 million/2.0 million euro) last year, as output grew 5.4% to 1.175 million tonnes, a mine official said on Monday.
“The explanation for the growing output is that, previously, the mine was not using its capacities fully. Last year, we almost reached our full capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per year,” Kakanj’s public relations director, Adib Zekic, told SeeNews.
The mine excavated 1.115 million tonnes of coal in 2006 and had a net profit of 453,000 marka that year. “We plan to produce 1.15 million tonnes in 2008,” he said.
Kakanj’s output for the first three months of this year was some 300,000 tonnes. Zekic said that production in open pit coal mines usually slows down in the first three months of each year due to unfavourable winter weather conditions. The mine digs 60% ot its coal output from open pit mines.
“The months of higher output are usually from April until the beginning of winter,” he said.
Zekic said Kakanj expected its profit to fall this year, as fuel prices on international markets were in constant rise. The mine uses diesel fuel for its excavating equipment.
“We certainly don't expect to operate at loss,” he said.
Kakanj sells 98% of its coal to the adjacent coal-fired power plant Kakanj, while the remaining, higher-quality coal is sold to households.
Rudnik Mrkog Uglja Kakanj is located near the central Bosnian town of Zenica and is one of the biggest in the Muslim-Croat Federation, which together with the Serb Republic forms war-divided Bosnia. Its monthly output prior to the 1992-95 war in Bosnia was some 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes. It used to employ 5,000 and now employs some 2,000.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bosnian marka)
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