Press center menu
22 October 2021
PIMCU’s Mine 8: One Million Cubic Meters of Rock Mass Brought to Grass
The mine car was lifted by Eduard Kononenko, the bottom man of the transport service section. Nine years ago, he also mined the first ore here, at 14-RESH mine shaft.
«It seems like it was quite recently. I remember the solemn ceremony of putting the mine into operation, when Sergey Vladilenovich Kiriyenko personally gave the start to uranium mining. And now we have a million cubic meters!» — says Eduard Kononenko.
The design capacity of the mine is 370 thousand tons of ore per year. The reserves amount to 12.8 thousand tons of uranium.
«The egress of a million cubic meters of rock mass is the result of the planned implementation of the production program by the work collective. I would like to note that mining even one cubic meter at this mine is very difficult because of the complex mining and geological conditions,» said Aleksander Rabolt, First Deputy Director General — Chief Engineer, PIMCU, PJSC. He went through all the stages of his working career: from the head of the tunneling area to the director of Mine 8, therefore he knows well the work of shotsmen, shaft men, stope miners, timbermen, experts of geological and mine surveying services, who ensure the unconditional fulfillment of the plan.
Since the beginning of 2021, the team of underground Mine 8 has also demonstrated good results — the key indicators for uranium extraction have already been fulfilled by 99.4%. «The plan will be overfulfilled. The work team of the mine management department continues excavating of the Yug-Yubileynoye field. This will make it possible to put into operation about ten stopes for the subsequent reserves development,» said Sergey Gurov, director of underground Mine 8.
After the ore was sent to the hydrometallurgical plant, an award ceremony was held for the best workers of Mine 8. The underground electrician Sergey Gamov, lift machine operator Olesya Safronova, control panel operators Yulia Gontareva and Anna Fedurina, bottom man Eduard Kononenko were awarded for significant achievements in their professional activities.
For reference:
PIMCU, PJSC produces uranium by the traditional mining method (underground uranium Mines 1 and 8), and using heap leaching technology (cleaning-up of non-commercial dumps). The extraction of strategic metal at Mine 1 is planned until 2030, and for Mine 8 the deadline is until 2035.
The facilities of the first stage of the underground Mine 8 with a capacity of 100 thousand tons of ore per year were put into operation on December 14, 2012. The Mine reached its design capacity of 370 thousand tons of ore per year in 2014.
