The company spent KRW780bn ($692.6m) in overseas acquisitions last year, and is in discussions with Mongolia and Russia to secure interest in Mongolia’s Tavan Tolgoi coal mine project, with a decision a unlikely to be finalised before June.
Kim Shin-jong, president and chief executive of Korea Resources was reported by Reuters as saying that it is the right time to invest and South Korea needs such investments.
"We should secure at least 50 percent of our supply from our own production to guarantee stability," Kim said.
"We are looking into coal mines with output capacities of more than 1 million tonnes per year and prefer mines that are already producing."
South Korea and Japan are looking to acquire 10% stake each in the Tavan Tolgoi project through their consortium with Russia, and have targeted a 36% stake in the project.
The other South Korean companies in the Russian-Korean-Japanese consortium include POSCO, Korea Electric Power Corp, LG International and Daewoo International.
