Obukhovskaya mine: description, output, photo

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

More than 100 years ago, the legend of Russian geologists, Obukhov, discovered near the Zverevo station an exit to the earth's surface of a powerful and unique coal seam - k2. And at the end of December 1978, the Obukhovskaya mine, recognized as the largest in Eastern Europe, was built and put into operation on this site.

Features

JSC Obukhovskaya Mine Administration is located in the Eastern Donbass, in the Rostov Region, not far from the village of Zverevo. The regional center - the city of Rostov-on-Don - is located to the south of it at a distance of 110 km.

The mine has its own processing plant, designed for a capacity of 3 million tons of anthracite coal per year with an enrichment depth of 0.5 mm. The mine field in the Obukhovskaya area extends for 14 km and goes 7.5 km deep. There are 2 working coal seams in this area. Now only the top one is being developed - k2.

In addition to the existing one, since 1994, the construction of a new mine - "Obukhovskaya 1" - began. Designits capacity was to be up to 2 million tons of coal per year. At the beginning of the 2000s, the mine was mothballed. Work resumed in 2014. In 2017, the first anthracite was mined there.

According to its characteristics, "Obukhov" coal is of very high quality and is represented by pure anthracite. Its main indicators include: ash content - 4-5 percent; low sulfur content - less than 1%. Coal reserves in the developed layer are more than 900 million tons.

The beginning of the story

The Obukhovskaya mine originates back in 1959, when the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU developed and adopted a plan for the development of the USSR economy for ten years. According to the planned activities, a serious development of the Zverevsky and Gukovsky coal regions of the Eastern Donbass was envisaged. At the same time, a decision was made to build a mine called Obukhovskaya-Zapadnaya.

Data on large deposits of high-quality coal in these places were obtained at the beginning of the 20th century. Approximately in 1905, the leadership of the Don Cossacks instructed the Englishman I. Strum to conduct reconnaissance of the region in order to establish the possibility of building a profitable coal mine. On the instructions of this British citizen, the geologist Obukhov (no other data except for his last name has been preserved about him) carried out exploration of a promising coal area. It was he who discovered a unique deposit of high-quality anthracite in the territory where Obukhovskaya now stands.

Great construction

The beginning of the construction of the mine was given by the XXV Congress of the CPSU in February1976. He designated it as the most important construction site of the five-year plan. And the Central Committee of the Komsomol announced the all-Union shock construction.

For the construction of the Obukhovskaya mine, a large number of specialists and workers, mostly young people, arrived from all regions of the USSR. At the same time, the construction of a working settlement began. Now it is a city of regional significance Zverevo.

The Obukhovskaya mine reached its design capacity of three million tons of coal per year in 1984. Until the mid-nineties of the 20th century, it was one of the best mining enterprises in the Soviet Union. The stable production of anthracite was from two million tons per year and more.

Difficult times

The collapse of the Soviet Union did not bypass the Obukhovskaya mine. By 1996, anthracite mining had decreased several times. A kind of anti-record was set in 1999, when only three hundred thousand tons of coal were issued to the mountain - this is 10 times less than was included in its design capacity.

Gradual economic recovery begins in the early 2000s. Then the mine turns into an open joint stock company (OJSC) and becomes the property of the Russian Coal company.

In total, the Obukhovskaya mine changed its name several times during its existence. In the period from 1978 to 1991, it was named in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Leninist Komsomol. Until 2002 - Obukhovskaya JSC. From 2003 to the present OAO Obukhovskaya Mine Administration.

Ukrainian owner

Since 2012, the mine has moved intothe property of the Ukrainian structure - Donetsk Fuel and Energy Company (DTEK). Its owner is a citizen of Ukraine, one of the richest people in this country - Renat Akhmetov.

Ukrainians who bought the Obukhovskaya mine from the Russian Coal company were primarily interested in the fact that the coal it produces meets the highest European environmental standards. More than half of the "Obukhov" anthracite was exported.

Together with the mine, Akhmetov acquired in his possession the Obukhovskaya mining and processing plant, Donskoy Anthracite OJSC (Dalnyaya mine), as well as more than half of the shares of Sulinanthracite LLC (mine No. 410). Related transport and energy enterprises were attached to these structures.

According to the announced plans, Ukrainian DTEK intended from the moment of purchase and over the next five years to invest in the development of purchased coal structures in the Russian Federation about 250 million US dollars. Raise the level of anthracite production to two or more million tons per year.

Miners working at the Obukhovskaya mine in the Rostov region, with the advent of a new Ukrainian owner, noted the presence of changes for the better. Thus, wages were paid on time. The level of discipline has increased. For unauthorized smoke breaks, drinking, absenteeism, immediate sanctions followed, up to and including dismissal. Before the financial crisis of 2014, as well as political problems in Ukraine, enougha lot of old equipment for more modern. In 2015, two new longwalls were put into operation at the Obukhovskaya mine. However, due to tense relations between Russia and Ukraine, coal production fell again by almost 10%.

Modernity

Some time ago, independent sources reported that the Ukrainian billionaire and oligarch Akhmetov is exploring the possibility of selling his mines in the Rostov region (Obukhovskaya and Dalnaya).

The Ukrainian side explained its intentions by the fact that it unexpectedly faced high inflation rates, an increase in the cost of equipment and consumables, an increase in railway tariffs by Russian Railways, as well as significant costs for electricity generation. All this led to high financial losses, which DTEK is unable to compensate for.

At the same time, analysts note that recently the revenue of the Obukhovskaya mine in the Rostov region has seriously increased. Last year, Akhmetov received almost half a billion rubles of net profit from Russian assets. Thus, the supply of anthracite coal to Ukraine in the first half of 2017 increased by almost 10 times. In 2018, it was supposed to bring these shipments to 1.2 million tons per year, which is a very large volume for the country.

In order to prevent possible claims from Russia, Akhmetov secured himself by the fact that the profit received from the operating mines of DTEK Obukhovskaya and Dalnaya is used to repay and service debtobligations to Sberbank of the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian company owes almost half a billion rubles to this banking structure.