Sources
SPb-Giproshakht Ltd., a division of Severstal-Resurs Ltd. since 2005, is a legal successor to the Giproshakht Institute founded in Leningrad 1928. The institute's main goal was to become the USSR major responsible organization to solve design tasks for the country’s entire mining industry.
Making Leningrad the location of Giproshakht was not done by chance. It was historically here that the Russian oldest higher geological schools have existed. These are the All-Union Geological Institute, the All-Union Mining Research Institute on Geomechanics and Mine Surveying as well as the Leningrad Mining Institute. Consulting support of the Mining Institute was necessary at the beginning of domestic mine designing. Cooperation with these organizations continues until nowadays.
Underground Mines
Since the beginning of its activity Giproshakht Institute has designed projects and studied deposits on the entire territory of the former Soviet Union. The major approach was to take into account the most efficient mining methods.
Projects were created for the Podmoskovny Basin, the Donbass Basin, the deposits of the South and Middle Urals and the Karaganda Coal Basin. Giproshakht have designed coal enterprises in Central Asia. In addition, before 1940ies the institute started large-scale projects for a number of new coal areas: Pechorski, Bureinski, Spitsbergen, Far-Eastern and others.
Of special importance before WW II was the work for the Pechorski Coal Basin that occupies a huge area in the north-east of the country. The first mines, № 9 Yuzhnaya and Zapolyarnaya, were put into operation as early as 1944. These were followed in 1950 by Yur-Shor, Tsentralnaya (1954), Promyshlennaya (1955), Oktiabrskaya (1960) and Yun-Yaga (1964). Later such coal giants as the Severnaya mine (1969), Komsomolskaya and Vorgashovskaya mines (1976) were commissioned. Many facilities were not only extensive but extremely complicated, too. Thus, for instance, three gently sloping seams with total annual production of 2.1 million tons of coal were extracted in the Severnaya mine — all being explosion- and dust-hazardous. Construction of mines in the Pechorski Basin was complicated by the presence of permafrost, which meant it was necessary to develop special foundations.
In the sixties the Giproshakht Institute proposed and implemented a radical technical improvement of the mines in the Vorkuta Basin. Attention was focused on the reconstruction of 21 mines, 10 of which later merged into 4 large facilities. Those were the Vorkutinskaya, Komsomolskaya, Severnaya and Zapolyarnaya mines.
The project of the Europe’s biggest mine, Vorgashorskaya № 1, with production of 4.5 tons of coal per year (reached in 1975) and since 1988 — 5.1 million tons of coal per year, was developed for the Vorgashorski Coal Basin.
The institute’s designers also worked for facilities in the Kuznetsk Basin, in Spitsbergen, Norilsk and in the Baltic Coal Shale Basin.
In the ’80s-90s Giproshakht actively participated in the development of the Podmoskovny Coal Basin. Projects for the construction of mines (Nikulinskaya, Vladimirskaya, Beryozovskaya, Afanasyevskaya, Belkovskaya and other mines) and washing plants were implemented for the Tulaugol and Novomoskovskugol Production Associations. These companies supplied solid fuel to the Shchekinskaya and Ryazan Power Plants.
Open-Cast Operations
One of SPb-Giproshakht's key fields has been designing of open-cast mining operations. During the pre-war period 7 open-cast coal mines were designed with a total annual production of 4.9 mt/y. This was a significant contribution to the improvement of open cast mining methods.
Open cast mining grew fast after the war. Nazarovski large open-cast mine (16 mt/y), Irsha-Borodinski — (40 mt/y), Beryozovski — (55 mt/y) and others were designed and built in the Kansko-Achinski Basin.
In the Podmoskovny Basin 4 open-cast mines were built under the projects of Giproshakht Institute: Kimovski with production of 1.1 mt/y, Ushakovski — 0.6 mt/y, Bogoroditski — 0.7 mt/y and Gryzlovski — 0.6 mt/y.
Coal Washing Plants
Designing of coal washing plants was carried out for all coal basins of the country: Karagandinski, Pechorski, Cheremkhovski, Kizelovski, Cheliabinski as well as for South Sakhalin, the Far East, Khakassia and other regions.
It was the Giproshakht Institute, which first solved the problem of coal shale preparation. Washing plants were built for the «Leningradskaya» mine having run-off mine (ROM) capacity of 10 mt/y and 5.3 mt/y of market shale as well as for the «Estonia» mine with ROM capacity of 9 mt/y and 5.2 mt/y of market shale. Later the institute implemented projects for a number of washing plants in the Karaganda Coal Basin.
New preparation methods (jigging, flotation, heavy-media separation and others) have been introduced since 1960s. A washing plant of the Severnaya mine (Vorkutaugol Production Association) was put into operation in 1971. Its ROM capacity is 3.1 mt per year.
The Pechorskaya Central Washing Plant, one of the largest ones built beyond the Arctic Circle, started its operation in 1993. The design capacity of the plant is 6 mt per year.
Briquetting Coal Plants
A new branch of the coal industry — brown coal briquetting appeared in the postwar period. The Giproshakht Institute is the only Russian organization responsible for design of briquetting plants. In the ’70s Dimitrovskaya briquetting plant with a capacity of 2.4 mt/y and Baydanovskaya — 1.2 mt/y of final products were designed for Ukraine. A project of the Kumertalovskaya plant with a capacity of 4 mt/y of final product was also developed for Bashkiria.
Designing for Foreign Customers
Since 1950 the Giproshakht Institute has been the only one in the USSR authorized to design mining operations for foreign customers.
First projects were issued for a number of coal mines in Romania and Bulgaria. A Romanian mine, Vulcan with production of 0.8 mt/y was reconstructed to the design of the Giproshakht Institute. Projects for 7 open-cast mines with a total yearly production of 20 million tons were carried out for Bulgaria in 1949-1959.
In the 1950s 9 mining projects were developed for China.
In 1950ies Giproshakht participated in the development of the coal industry in Mongolia. Thus, an open-cast mine Sharyngol was built in 1965 with production of 1.1 tons of coal per year, and in 1969 — an open cast-mine Adun-Chulun (0.2 mt/y) was put into operation. In 1990 the Giproshakht Institute carried out a «Feasibility Study of Òavantolgoy Deposit of Coking Coals in Mongolia». An open-cast mine Baganur, the main coal mining enterprise of Mongolia, was built in 1990.
In the ’80s Giproshakht took part in the development of the coal industry of Vietnam. An open-cast mine, Kaoshon with a capacity of 3 mt/y of coal was designed and put into operation in 1980.
A project of Uglevik coal mine was done for Yugoslavia.
Facilities designed by the Giproshakht Institute are operated in India, including the Manikpur open-cast (1 mt/y), the Banki mine (0.6 mt/y), the Surakachkar mine (1.1 mt/y), the Djandjra mine (1.5 mt/y), and the Ramgar open-cast mine (3 mt/y).
Designing of underground and open-cast mines as well as of coal washing plants has also been carried out for a number of other foreign countries.
