OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2008. Installation of the newly delivered tunnelling machine KSP-32 has started at the Listvyazhnaya mine, which is incorporated in Belon Group.

The tunnelling machine KSP-32 produced by the Yasinovatsky Machinery Plant is successfully used on rocks of intense hardness, as opposed to light miners GPKS, which have been widely used before.

The tunnelling machines KSP-32 have been operated at the enterprises of Belon Group since 2004, and now they are reasonably viewed as safe and high-capacity equipment. Today, there are five KSP-32s working at coal production facilities.

The acquisition of another such machine for the Listvyazhnaya mine will, in particular, allow cutting a ventilation drift with the length of 450 m, which is required for fresh air supply from the main fan to the development and working faces of the Gramoteinsky-2 seam.

Further development of the high-capacity tunnelling machine fleet of the Listvyazhnaya mine will allow for a significant increase in drivage rates, and for prompt preparation of the extraction front, the area of which is estimated to expand from year to year.

According to the development plan, by 2012, it is projected to more than double the coal production volume and, thus, to reach 6 mln tons of coal per year.

For this purpose, the enterprise is going through an all-round modernization. A number of major facilities, such as the main fan with a trunk heating main and mine water treatment units with mine water pipelines, have already been commissioned. The Company’s plans include the construction of the main mine drainage complex for the Gramoteinsky-2 seam, and of a depot for monorail diesel locomotives, as well as the renovation of the power supply system.

In the period of 2008¬–2012, Belon plans to invest nearly 2.5 bln rubles in the renovation of the mine.