Vattenfall Europe AG (VTT-XE) Wednesday denied a press report that the German energy utility plans to stop mining brown coal and using it as fuel in its power plants.

"Such media reports don't have anything to do with reality," said Tuomo Hatakka, chief executive of the German unit of Swedish state-controlled Vattenfall AB.

Earlier Wednesday eastern German daily newspaper Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten reported that Vattenfall Europe plans to continue operating its open cast brown coal mines until the end of the operating lives of company's lignited-fired power plants.

New power plants wouldn't be built the newspaper added, saying that this would end lignite mining in eastern Germany over the next 30 to 40 years.

The newspaper said that Vattenfall Europe was considering exiting its lignite operations after the German Federal Government earlier this month presented key points of a long-term energy roadmap through 2050 that aims to prolong the operating lives of Germany 's nuclear power stations.

Oystein Loseth, CEO of Vattenfall Europe's parent company, discussed the company's plans with local and regional politicians in the eastern German state of Brandenburg at a meeting last week, the newspaper said.

Vattenfall Europe, however, Wednesday denied that ending mining lignite and using it to fuel power plants was discussed at the meeting.

"The opposite is the case: we stick to our plans and highlighted the importance of lignite for [the state of] Brandenburg during that meeting," the company said in an emailed statement.
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