Pokrovsk Mining plans to resume iron ore mining in April 2023

The Pokrovsk Mining and Processing Plant (Pokrovsk GOK) is preparing to resume production from April 2023 after the shutdown of capacities in early December 2022 due to a shortage of electricity. This is stated in the enterprise’s press release.

“Pokrovsk Mining is on its way to the spring launch of the enterprise. The winter was quite difficult for our team. From its first day, the plant was forced to stop production due to the shortage of electricity in the system of Ukraine, which did not allow industrial enterprises to function at full capacity,” the message says.

In addition to problems with energy supply, the plant’s production processes were affected by a significant decrease in demand for finished products and the loss of logistics due to hostilities.

Currently, the company is gradually taking steps to resume production in April, as Ukraine’s energy system has stabilized, so the plant will not have to work under conditions of energy supply limits.

Manganetsk Mining and Processing Plant (Marganets GOK), in turn, continues to work, but with reduced capacity.

“February seemed quite difficult for Marganets GOK. The work of all workshops and divisions of the enterprise was affected by the complex mining and geological conditions that developed in the mines of the plant, weather conditions that significantly affected the work of the Grushev quarry, as well as the daily and nightly threats of artillery shelling by the Russian army from the temporarily occupied Energodar,” the company noted.

As the Marganets GOK’s press service reported, in February 2023, the plant fulfilled the production plan by only 12.2%, extracting 34.78 thousand tons of manganese ore, because mines №9/10 and №14/15 did not cope with their planned tasks. Mine №3/5 was the only underground mine that fulfilled the plan.

“These indicators were affected not only by poor mining and geological conditions, frequent stops for manual work, re-strengthening of the lines, but also by a catastrophic lack of personnel, who were mainly on sick leave,” states the press service of GOK.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022, Marganetsk GOK reduced production of manganese concentrate by 41.2% compared to 2021 – to 324,000 tons. Thus, all mines and the Grushevska quarry fulfilled all their annual plans for the extraction of raw manganese ore with an indicator of 894.5 thousand tons.

Ukrainian iron and steel companies for the past year exported 23.98 million tons of iron and manganese ores, which is 45.9% less than in 2021. In monetary terms, the indicator fell by 57.8% y/y – to $2.91 billion.

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.