Kyrgyzstan's untapped coal potential

Kyrgyzstan has enough coal to power the central Asian country for centuries, but with a lack of roads it has struggled to get the vital mineral from the mines to the markets. But one miner is trying to change that by building the roads himself. Al Jazeera's Zein Basravi reports from Ozgen in southern Kyrgyzstan.

[dickhamilton]

just to put that 1 or 5 million tons of coal into perspective; in 1913, UK mined 287 million tons (more than 4 tons per head of the population of that time consumed in UK, the rest exported), in 1912, US mined 485 million tons, and Germany 255 million, all in an era before large machines, coal cutters etc were used underground, and most coal was extracted by small charges of dynamite, where it was safe to use it, and pick and shovel. They all went on to bigger and better things, of course. By 1939, these figures had pretty much doubled.

[fajriahmad]

Finally, some news that doesn't stir up the usual "coal mine is bad and everyone in it should feel bad" cliche

If a country is bestowed with rich natural resources, those resources must be fully utilized to the benefit and prosperity of the people

Nothing wrong with extracting and utilizing natural resources (in this case coal) problem mostly arise from weak inspection or corrupt/greedy regulation official. Take for example norway or australia, whose economy rely on extraction of hydrocarbon resources yet both countries prosper.

I wish the people of kyrgiztan all the best

[kurtilein]

coal, the dirtiest energy source on the planet (except for some fracking and tar sands operations).