YAKUTSK, November 23. /TASS/. A subsidiary of Yakutia's state-owned Housing and Communal Services Company plans to begin coal mining in Yakutia's Arctic district, the company's CEO Vitaly Chikarev told reporters.

"We have big strategic plans related to coal production in this region. <…> We mean the production of local coal - in the Momsky District there is the village of Sobolokh, and in the 1950s some 40 km from that village the geology exploration confirmed a coal deposit," he said. "We've made the first step - organized a subsidiary - Sakhaugolteplo."

It will be the open-pit mining, he said, adding presently the company is expecting a license. The reserves, according to the data of that time, made about 3.7 million tons of coal. The extracted coal would be used in the boiler rooms of the company's branches, in a pilot mode, he said. The number of boiler houses has been growing in the region, and the company has been connecting houses and social facilities to the networks. Thus, the mining would mean a large stock of coal in the region and will offer easier coal logistics to the districts.

The Housing and Communal Services Company provides housing and communal services in Yakutia's 26 municipal districts, where 12 districts are in the Arctic. Since 2019, the company has been the region's solid municipal waste management operator in the Arctic zone.