OREANDA-NEWS. June 29, 2011. The day before Yuri Berg, Governor of Orenburg region, and Andrey Kozitsyn, Director General of UMMC, installed a symbolic peg at the designed location of the open pit of “Levoberezhnoye” deposit (Dombarovskaya group). The deposit is to be mined by JSC “Gaisky GOK” (“Gaisky GOK” is referred to UMMC raw material complex).

By the end of the year they plan to strip 1.36 mln. m3 of overburden. The first ore is to be mined in September and next spring the open pit will be running at full capacity of 300 thsn. tons of ore annually. UMMC is going to invest 1.2 bln. rubles into development of the deposit “Levoberezhnoye” out of which 400 mln. rubles will be drawn this year.

“It takes much time for us to develop the project, - Andrey Kozitsyn said. – It is uppermost attractive due to high copper content”. The project is both economically and socially important. It will create 130 new job vacancies. “It means that 130 families will have reliable and stable income source”, Yuri Berg emphasized. He also mentioned the Ural origin of the company: “It is pleasant that a corporation name includes the word ‘Ural’. The residents of the Ural region are reliable. Owing to UMMC a legendary Orenburg enterprise Gaisky GOK has an opportunity to grow and develop”.

It should be noted that development of “Levoberezhnoye” deposit in 2011 will let Gaisky GOK make up a deficiency in raw materials due to completion of mining of the open pit “Letneye”. Thus within the next ten years Gaisky GOK will be able to keep up the total amount of ore mined through open pit mining techniques on the deposits of the Dombarovskaya property at the level of 1 mln. tons annually.

“Development of the deposit “Levoberezhnoye” is the planned step implementing a strategic program on strengthening and increasing of the own raw material base, Nikolai Radko, Director of Gaisky GOK comments. – Moreover within the next two-three years in addition to “Levoberezhnoye” deposit the other deposits located in Dombarovsk and Yasnensky regions will be mined.

Due to location of the deposit “Levoberezhnoe” close to the deposit “Letnee” the costs for relocation of the required mine fleet and equipment from the depleted open pit are minimal. Besides “Letnee” production site will be used to serve the new deposit: maintenance facilities, explosives and fuels and lubricants warehouses and welfare facilities.

The license for “Levoberezhnoye” deposit exploitation was issued to Gaisly GOK in 2007. The development project was elaborated by institute “Uralmekhanobr” (located in Ekaterinburg and referred to scientific complex of UMMC).

The ore reserves of “Levoberezhnoye” amount to 1,862 mln. tons (copper amounts to about 70 thsn. tons). The depth of the open pit on the closed boundary will be 170 m. “Levoberezhnoye” open pit mining will last for about eight years.