The governmental acceptance committee allowed the operation of new longwall 1172 at the Geroiv Kosmosu Mine Group. The commercial reserves are 73.6 thousand tonnes of G grade coal. The longwall is 250 m long; the mine panel is 1,132 m long. The average daily output is 1,849 tonnes. It will take till March 2018 to extract reserves in the new longwall. The seam contains the DG steam coal grade of complicated structure. This coal is used by TPPs to secure power supply to hundreds of thousands of customers.
The geological seam thickness is 0.8 m on average. To start operation in the new longwall, we purchased a VSPK extension conveyor system and repaired two KD-80 powered roof support units, one Sigma" hydraulic unit, and one KA-200 shearer. The total investments in the longwall amounted to UAH 36.4 mln.
The geological conditions in the new longwall are complicated; the coal seam has some areas where roof collapse is possible. The longwall will be extracted by the highly skilled team headed by Maksim Dikarev from production section 1.
Sergey Faraonov, Deputy Director for Operations of DTEK Geroiv Kosmosu Mine Group, comments:
"Our miners work in complicated conditions, but DTEK’s investments in production development and occupational safety make them feel safe and secure. This year the Company is planning to allocate about UAH 805 mln for production facilities maintenance and occupational safety. Thus, even under such difficult conditions, DTEK Geroiv Kosmosu Mine Group is operating efficiently to ensure sustainable production of coal, which Ukraine needs so badly now."
This is the seventh longwall commissioned by DTEK Geroiv Kosmosu mine group this year. We are planning to commission five more longwalls by the end of the year. The mine group's annual target for 2017 is 4.8 Mt of so-called 'black diamonds'.