Technological State of Coal Mining in Ukraine

The subject of the study is the country's coal industry, in particular, its technological state. The purpose of the article is to assess the current state of the coal industry and the role of coal in the fuel balance of Ukraine. The unsatisfactory state of the industry is caused by a number of factors, both objective and subjective. The objective ones include the complexity of mining and geological conditions of coal mining, low technical level of coal mining and coal processing enterprises, high degree of physical and moral depreciation of fixed assets, and subjective ones are related to limited investment resources, inefficient management system of the industry and lack of a market mechanism for pricing coal products. It is established that 43% of the total number of longwalls at state-owned mines used complexes of a new technical level. The priorities of technological development of the Ukrainian coal industry in the course of its modernisation are identified. The further development of the country's coal industry depends on solving two global challenges: technical and technological modernisation of the industry and its reform. At present, the situation in the coal industry needs to be improved as soon as possible, with one of the main areas of improvement being the technical re-equipment of mines with new technical equipment, improvement of existing and introduction of new advanced coal mining technologies.