January 3 (SeeNews) - Serbia's energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) produced a total of 39 million tonnes of coal at the Kolubara mining basin and the Drmno open pit mine last year, up 4%.
"This is the second best result in the history of EPS," Antic said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian public broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
EPS currently has 1.6 million tonnes of coal stored by thermal power plants which could produce 550,000 kWh of electricity, Antic said.
"We have good hydrological conditions and production in the hydro power sector is very good in the Djerdap and Drina-Lim complexes, as well as throughout Serbia," he added.
The Kolubara mining basin, comprising 14 open pit mines, has reserves of 2.2 billion tonnes of lignite, one of the largest in Europe. Drmno is part of the TE-KO Kostolac coal mining complex in eastern Serbia, which also includes the 700 MW Kostolac B and 310 MW Kostolac A thermal power plants.