Pokrovsky Mining suspends iron ore mining and production of concentrate

Pokrovsky Mining and Processing Plant (Pokrovsky Mining) suspends its main activity of iron ore extraction and concentrate production. The chairman of the board of the plant, Serhii Shuvaev, and the technical director, Viktor Bondarts, with trade union activists stated about it at the meeting.

The meeting was devoted to debunking several myths about the enterprise, including its complete closure and dismissal of staff. As the heads of the combine noted, Pokrovsky Mining is actually suspending its activities to accumulate stocks of goods and material values ​​(TMC) and carry out repair work.

«Currently, a certain reorganization of work is taking place involving the maximum number of people for the protection of the company’s facilities and, accordingly, carrying out repair work, transportation and shipment with the involvement of equipment. Enterprises will still deliver people to their workplaces by bus,» the message reads.

The company’s personnel will be involved in the performance of services for customers. In particular, employees of the electrical repair, mechanical repair, construction repair, railway and motor vehicle shops, as well as the central energy laboratory. The drains and the people who maintain them remain in operation.

In conditions of low workload, the plant plans to ship and sort scrap that can be sold. In addition, the enterprise has goods that have been accumulating in warehouses for years, but were never needed in production.

«At the moment, it has already been thoroughly analyzed, and now the relevant services are looking for ways to sell it. Now, a lot of attention of the company’s specialists is focused on this, because there is an additional opportunity to earn money for the salary of the labor team and other resources necessary for the operation of the plant,» added the head of the company.

Among the main problems that affect the work of the plant is the economic downturn in terms of demand and cost for products containing manganese.

«I want to say that you and I are going through very difficult times now. First of all, they are related to the war, which has been raging on the territory of our country for the second year in a row. It carries with it all the troubles, including the economic ones, that have befallen our company and ferroalloy factories, which are the main consumers of Pokrovsky Mining products,» commented Serhii Shuvaev.

According to him, in 2021, the volume of sales of finished products exceeded 1 million tons. Already last year, this indicator decreased by almost three times, and in the current year – by two more.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Pokrovsky Mining in the middle of July 2023 after a 4-month standstill, the Chkalovsk enrichment plant was put into operation again. The issue of factory operation directly depends on the demand for concentrate, which is not increasing yet.

In September, the plant produced the first tons of manganese sinter ore at the Bohdanivska beneficiation and agglomeration factory after a long period of downtime. BZAF planned to produce 15,000 tons of agglomerate per month.

Pokrovsk Mining is the largest producer of manganese ore in Ukraine. The main consumers of products are enterprises of the steelmaking and ferroalloy branches of the steel industry.