Russian mining and steel producing company Evraz Group has announced that it has started production at the first longwall face (No. 3-40) of the eastern block at the Alardinskaya mine in Yuzhkuzbassugol. The total investments in the project exceed RUB 1 billion. The commercial reserves of the new face stand at about three million mt of coal. The company plans to exhaust them over two years, producing about 170,000-200,000 mt per month.
The project called "Stripping and preparation of the eastern block" started in March 2013 and was completed two months earlier than planned. Over this period, maintenance works were performed on the ventilation and power supply systems, while water drainage facilities were upgraded. Over eight kilometers of tunnels were mined as part of the project.
To enable direct transportation of mined coal from the eastern block to the coal storage site, a state-of-the-art seven kilometer-long conveyor line was put into operation. In the mine itself, two Pioma conveyors were installed, connecting the central and the eastern blocks. New conveyors with a 1,400 mm wide belt have a high transportation capacity of up to 2,000 mt of coal an hour.