Marganets Mining suspended iron ore mining and processing in October

Marganets Mining and Processing Plant (Marganets Mining) in October 2023 suspended the mining and processing of raw manganese ore. This is stated in the press release of the enterprise.

Among the reasons for the shutdown are problems with water supply due to the destruction by Russian troops of the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station, which makes it impossible to replenish the technical reservoirs of water used to enrich raw manganese ore at the Grushevska enrichment plant.

Also, the main reasons for the shutdown include artillery shelling by the Russian Army on the facilities and infrastructure of the industrial site of the plant.

Enemy shelling damaged communications, buildings and workshops of the enterprise. The Grushevska enrichment plant suffered because it received significant damage. Gas and fuel oil heating throughout the industrial site and mines of the plant has also been turned off, since heating these types of fuel is extremely risky in war conditions.

A particular problem was the lack of water for wet enrichment of iron ore extracted from mines and quarries.

“The water shortage did not appear immediately, but gradually. Last year, Mining was forced to stop due to the fact that in the reverse cycle of the enterprise there was less and less technical water, but the plant stayed afloat by purchasing technical river water from the centralized city water canal networks. After the Russians blew up the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station and a mirror of water was released from the Kakhovka reservoir, the city of Marganets and all adjacent territories were left without water. Including Marganets Mining,” the statement says.

Currently, the plant is idle, but during this time some of the workers are engaged in repair and restoration work for a successful start-up in the future. The main objects of repair are the Grushevsky quarry and the sludge management and water supply area.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, Marganets Mining reduced production of manganese concentrate by 41.2% compared to 2021 – to 324 thousand tons. Almost all production plans were adjusted due to the fact that many of the plant’s workers, especially longwall miners, were mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Marganets GOK 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.