OREANDA-NEWS. On October 10th, the Kemerovo Oblast Governor Aman Tuleyev and the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) CEO Vladimir Rashevsky launched the 2nd unit of the coal preparation plant operated by S. M. Kirov Colliery featuring the annual processing capacity of up to 6 mln tonnes of coal.

The coal preparation plant (CPP) was built at S. M. Kirov Colliery in 1954 and had the rated capacity to process 1.9 mln tonnes of coal a year. Overtime the CCP underwent multiple redevelopments to improve its capacity, which by the early 21st century reached 3 mln tonnes. As S. M. Kirov Colliery's was steadily yielding 4.5 mln tonnes, SUEK resolved to increase the plant's capacity by adding another unit to it. The construction of the 2nd unit began in 2010. The investment project's worth amounted to 2.3 billion rubles.

The CCP 2nd unit's experimental and industrial testing has been going on since October 2012. At present, the new plant operates at the rated monthly load level processing run-of-mine G-grade coal with the heating value of up to 6,700 kcal, the ash content of 8.2% , the moisture content of 7.5%.

The coal preparation plant features the state-of-the art equipment, including an automation system for controlling the processes and devices. Coal is prepared in a BATAC jig able to process 800 tonnes of coal per hour. It was custom made for S. M. Kirov Colliery's CPP. The colliery's old modernized plant runs in parallel with the new unit. An independent arrangement of supplying run-of-mill coal provides for separate preparation of coals from S. M. Kirov Colliery and other coal winning sites. The throughput rate of the entire preparation complex exceeds 8.5 mln tonnes of coal a year.

A closed water-slurry circuit putting an end to slurry ponds in the high-water bed of the river Inya (62 hectares) was established for the first time in the industry at both the new and old units of the plant.

With the launch of the new unit of the CPP 127 new jobs were created. The income tax payable to budgets at all levels will amount to 247 mln rubles a year.

Delivering a speech at the plant opening ceremony the Governor A. G. Tuleyev emphasized the all-round benefits of the project implementation. Primarily, its capacity is going to be 5,000,000 tonnes a year. At large, the plant will be processing over 8 mln tonnes of coal, which is 2.5 times more than before.

The high quality coal concentrate will be exported to China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and elsewhere. What's most important, the plant will be an environmentally safe production site. The new section has been designed so as to minimize its environmental footprint. It uses a closed circuit for technical water.

A. G. Tuleyev stressed that the Company took an effort to relocate the people, whose houses got in the sanitary protection area of the plant.

As part of the festivities, the Governor also visited St. Sergius of Radonezh Memorial Chapel currently under construction at A. D. Ruban Colliery, the Museum of Miners' Glory at Kolchugino Mine, took part in unveiling the monument commemorative of the heroes and victims of the March Insurrection at S. M. Kirov Colliery.