OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2012. KOKS Group, the world’s largest exporter of merchant pig iron and a leading producer of merchant coke in Russia, announces that its subsidiary OOO Koks-Mining continues developing Tikhova mine. The mine will be commissioned in 2014.

Construction of surface infrastructure and commissioning of new equipment is underway. Mine tunneling operations and the first longwall face drilling operations are being carried out as well. 7,674 running meters have been drilled out of the total amount of 28,500 running meters needed to start operations. Totally, from the beginning of 2012 till the beginning of November, 4,322 running meters have been drilled. Maximum depth of tunneling activities is 120 meters.

Total amount of investments made from the start of the project including expenditures for license is 5.7 billion rubles (around USD183.5 million).

Among the surface facilities commissioned in 2012 there are a temporary accommodation complex and a ventilating complex. A heat supply system for surface facilities is starting operations as well as a repair workshop for mining equipment and a fire-protection pump station.

Tunneling operations are made by seven operating shearers. An additional shearer DOSCO (UK) has arrived from Butovskaya mine. Three diesel-hydraulic locomotives are used to transport material along mine tunnels. Seven belt conveyors have been put into operation at the mine. A contract is signed with FAMUR Group of Companies (Poland) to supply main belt conveyor Pioma 1400. Compressed air supplies are provided by module compressor plants with DEN 200SHM compressors.

By the start of operations of the first production complex the mine’s personnel would include around 1,075 miners. 476 employees of the planned 689 have already been recruited.

Coal extraction at the mine will begin in 2014. The project includes commissioning in three stages before the mine reaches its maximum production capacity thus reducing construction time and tunneling operations volume. The first stage includes developing, preparation and recovering coal on the first block of the seam #23. The mine’s coal extraction capacity at this stage will be around 1,500 thousand tonnes p.a. The second stage includes developing, preparation and commissioning of the coal face #2 within the seam #26 with an increase of coal extraction capacity up to 2,100 thousand tonnes p.a. The third stage would include developing, preparation and recovering coal in the third coal face of the second block of the seam #23. According to the plan, this would allow increasing the mine’s production capacity to 3,000 thousand tonnes of coal p.a.