May 20 (SeeNews) - Serbian state-owned utility EPS said on Tuesday that its coal-mining unit Kolubara has restarted one excavator-conveyer-spreader system (ECS) on the D open pit after the overflowing Kolubara river receded and that another ECS is expected to come back online soon.
EPS has suffered power generation and coal-mining cuts in the aftermath of wide-spread floods triggered by record rainfall last week.
Kolubara's Tamnava-Zapadno Polje excavation site is still holding around 210 million cubic meters (cu m) of water with its Veliki Crljeni site flooded by some 26 million cu m, EPS said in a statement.
On Sunday, news agency Beta quoted Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic as saying the flood-related damages at the Kolubara coal mining complex - which supplies the 3,288 megawatt Nikola Tesla thermal power plant, the country's largest power generation complex, were estimated at at least 100 million euro ($136.96 million).
Kolubara produced 30.7 million tonnes of coal in 2013.
($=0.7301 euro)