Gangwon Province Strongly Urges Preliminary Feasibility Study Approval for Economic Promotion Project in Abandoned Mine Areas of Taebaek and Samcheok

【Financial News Chuncheon=Kim Ki-seop Reporter】Governor Kim Jin-tae of Gangwon Province held a press conference at the provincial office on the 21st, strongly urging the government to approve the preliminary feasibility study for the economic promotion project in the early closed mine areas of Taebaek and Samcheok.
The economic promotion project in the abandoned mine areas is a large-scale investment project with a total project cost of 716.8 billion won. It is being pursued as a core project for fostering alternative industries in a situation where economic damage of 8.9 trillion won is feared due to the early closure of the Jangseong Mine in Taebaek in June last year and the Dogye Mine in Samcheok in June this year.
Taebaek plans to invest a total of 400.1 billion won to create a future resource cluster consisting of clean methanol production, a logistics base, and a core mineral industrial complex on the site of the Jangseong Mine.
Clean methanol is an eco-friendly energy used as ship fuel, and currently, ships are globally transitioning from diesel to eco-friendly energy, making it a blue ocean field with high growth potential. Core minerals are currently being promoted in close cooperation with the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, a national research institute.
Samcheok plans to invest a total of 316.7 billion won to establish a medical industry cluster based on a heavy ion accelerator for cancer treatment on the site of the Dogye Mine. This is expected to create a synergy effect with the Golden City project currently being promoted in Samcheok.
When the project is promoted, it is expected to directly employ 315 people, with a job creation ripple effect of 1,186 people, and economically, it is expected to generate benefits of 3.3206 trillion won, including the supply of clean methanol, reduction of greenhouse gases, and improvement of cancer patient survival rates.
Gangwon Province believes that national-level support for fostering alternative industries is essential, considering the reality of the abandoned mine areas that have been in decline since the government's coal rationalization policy was implemented in 1989.
The preliminary feasibility evaluation has completed the economic analysis meeting, and the final evaluation results are expected to be released in August after a comprehensive review of economic and policy aspects through the AHP comprehensive evaluation subcommittee at the end of July.
Governor Kim Jin-tae emphasized, "The announcement of the preliminary feasibility study approval for the economic promotion project in the abandoned mine areas is imminent," and "if the project is approved, Taebaek will be reborn as an eco-friendly future energy city, and Samcheok as an advanced medical city that saves lives."
He added, "We cannot talk about the special sacrifice mentioned by the new government without including the abandoned mine areas of Gangwon Province," and "the miners who met in Germany also wish for economic revival from afar in Germany."

kees26@fnnews.com Kim Ki-seop Reporter