President Toomas Hendrik Ilves participated at opening ceremony of the VKG Group’s new Ojamaa mine with estimated reserves of 58m tonnes and operating time of 15-17 years.
Gallery: president opens new oil shale mine (38 photos)
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Today, oil shale is Estonia’s main energy resource, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, the president said, adding: «If we learn how to value oil shale, better and in more varied ways than before, laying great emphasis on environmental protection, then we will have acted wisely indeed. I’m glad VKG serves as a strong engine in this field.»
Mr Ilves praised Ojamaa’s 440 miners and engineers for their contribution into Estonia’s homes being full of light and warmth, us having a functioning e-State and Estonia being one of the least energy-import dependent member states in EU.
With over 2,000 employees, VKG (Viru Keemia Grupp) is the largest oil shale reprocessing company in Estonia, possessing its own mine, five reprocessing plants, as well as an energy company. A large part of Europe’s cosmetics industry uses a chemical, produced from VKG’s oil shale phenols, to make hair dyes.