OREANDA-NEWS. Lebedinsky GOK, part of Metalloinvest, has purchased two new locomotives for its open pit mine railway fleet as part of the programme to improve the operational efficiency of the Company as a whole and the mining and transportation operations, in particular. Metalloinvest's investment programme for 2014 provides for the acquisition of eight additional open pit mine locomotives for Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK. The two plants currently use 106 electric locomotives to remove rock mass from open pit mines.

The purchase of new locomotives is another step in the modernisation of the railway transport division. In 2013, Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK received 88 new dumpcars. A further 100 are expected in 2014. Major work on the reconstruction of railway routes is being carried out.

As part of Metalloinvest's investment programme aimed at increasing the transportation efficiency of its mining operations, the mining and processing plants also received six 180-tonne Caterpillar dump trucks, a trial model of the 220-tonne BelAZ and a 160-tonne BelAZ in 2013. This year, both plants are also expecting deliveries of the Hitachi EX 5600E - 6 LD excavators with a 23 cubic metre bucket.