At the beginning of February, 2010 two heavy machinery convoys departed from the Upper Ulak station (Amur Region) where Mechel-owned construction base 4th km of the Ulak-Elga railway spur track is located. The equipment is intended for development of Elga deposit.
The company said that both machinery convoys have already reached their destination, the place of the new open pit mine construction. There will be five equipment and machinery convoys in total. They are expected to deliver all necessary equipment and materials to start construction of the open pit mine and mining operations before April 2010.
The machinery packs include various mining and transport machines, including excavators, bulldozers, motor graders, dump trucks, fuel servicing trucks, timber trucks and shift camp components. In total, over ninety pieces of special-purpose machinery and equipment will be supplied for the deposit development.
All operations at the first stage of Elga coal deposit construction are implemented by Mechel ‘s subsidiary Metallurgshachtspectzstroy.
Vladimir Polin, senior vice-president of Mechel, said: “We expect to mine up to 200 thousand tonnes of coal this year and in 2011 we expect to increase this level to 1 million tonnes. This is very important, considering growing demand for high-quality coking coal both within and outside Russia.
“Timing of further Elga coal deposit development will depend on market conditions but, still, our main goal is to reach the 27-30 million tonnes of coal production at the deposit. Thus, summing up production volumes of all Mechel’s coking coal production assets, the company will become one of the top three world’s largest producers and suppliers of coking coal concentrates.”
