Two different investors of Chinese origin have put a magnifying glass on the coal mining region of Coahuila, in order to inject US$30 million dollars in the construction of a coal coking plant.
“There is an investment in the making; two Chinese investors are very interested in setting a coking plant up. They are to come in early 2019 to evaluate the region and we are confident that it will happen and that this will strongly strengthen the coal sector,” said Jaime Guerra Perez, Secretary of Economia y Turismo of the entity.
The investors’ intentions are to enhance the calorific value of coal and thereby create products such as methanol, ammonium sulfate, tar, tooth sulfur paste, and benzene.
“For every million tons of coke, 120,000 tons of methanol, 15,600 tons of ammonium sulfate, 54,000 tons of tar, 2,400 of dental sulfur paste and 15,200 tons of benzene are generated. This opens up another market in the region.”
Professionals from the Research Center in Applied Geosciences of the Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila said that from the central region of the state on the border with Texas, United States, Coahuila is rich in two coal basins whose betas are divided into thermal and metallurgical coal.
Furthermore, Coahuila possesses coal reserves that allow the industry to continue extracting for more than 90 years and it has two power plants with a capacity to generate 2,600 megawatts of energy per year, which translates into 7.5% of Mexico’s energy.