Marganets Mining plans to resume iron ore mining in the spring of 2024

Manganets Mining and Processing Plant plans to resume mining and processing of raw manganese ore in the spring of 2024. Since October 2023, the company has suspended these processes due to probable power outages in winter and problems with water supply. This is stated in the press release.

As a result of constant enemy shelling, window openings of administrative and domestic and industrial premises in the workshops of the Mining were destroyed. The heating networks and communications of the boiler room and heating stations were also damaged, which does not allow heating the premises of the company’s workshops. Under such conditions, it is impossible to ensure a sanitary thermal regime for the plant’s workers in the autumn-winter period of 2023-2024.

In addition, under the conditions of the risk of continued terrorist attacks by the Russian Federation on the objects of the energy infrastructure of Ukraine, with the onset of cold weather, power outages are possible.

In order to preserve the technological equipment and reserves of mineral resources, recently, Manganets Mining worked out only active pits and those that were subject to developed mining pressure. At present, all existing pits of underground workshops have been worked out. This allows to preserve the technological equipment, to prevent significant losses of iron ore reserves.

«The technology of underground iron ore mining involves an exclusively continuous process of working out the mine field in its entirety within 1.5-2 years, therefore putting new mine shafts into operation is currently impractical. The suspension of production will lead to excessive mining pressure in the working space and, as a result, the collapse of the mine workings and the probable loss of pits along with the technological equipment,» the company adds.

At the time of suspension of the work of the combine, the remaining raw materials in the warehouses are enough for the continuous operation of the enrichment complex of the enterprise for 6 months. The remaining goods are also sufficient to meet the needs of consumers.

Wages during the period of forced shutdown of the enterprise will be paid in accordance with the requirements of the current legislation of Ukraine.

«Today, the specialists of the Manganets Mining are performing work on the preservation of mining products and technological equipment, regular work to ensure the vital activity of the enterprise in idle conditions, repair work on the RSHR-5000 rotary complex and the ESH-15/90 walking excavator, as well as current repairs of the slurry pipelines of the ShGZVP workshop. The specified measures will allow to restore the work of production divisions and the enterprise as a whole,» the plant summarizes.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 Manganets Mining reduced production of manganese concentrate by 41.2% compared to 2021 – to 324 thousand tons.

Marganets Mining is the only mining and processing plant in Ukraine and the CIS that mines manganese underground. In the developed eastern part of the Nikopol manganese ore deposit (in the Grushevsko-Basansky area), the plant receives up to 80% of its production.

The plant consists of five mines, two open pits (Basanskyi and Grushevskyi), a processing plant and a chemical equipment research industrial complex.