EVRAZ Starts Stripping Kachkanar-Proper Ore Deposit
EVRAZ started implementation of its investment project at the Kachkanar-proper titanium magnetite vanadium-containing ore deposit.
Commercial ore production is expected to begin in Q1 2021. The project is on the list of strategically important investment projects in Sverdlovsk Region. The total planned investment into Stage One of the project is RUB 6.4 bln. The deposit will be developed in a single open pit. By 2024, the annual ore production is expected to reach 13 mln tonnes. The project will create 135 additional jobs.
The deposit will be developed using the cutting edge technologies: open-pit excavators with 20-cubic-metre shovels and heavy-duty 240-tonne BelAZ dump trucks. At later stages, coarse crushing will be set up in the pit, with conveyors moving crushed ore to the pit’s edge for finer crushing. Finely ground ore will be delivered to the enrichment plant via a trunk conveyor.
Preparatory works are currently under way. All the required documentation has been prepared, construction of railways and motorways, power grids, pumping stations, water supply and drainage facilities has started. First tonnes of ore are scheduled for production in 2020, with commercial shipments to begin in January 2021. The Gusevjgorskoye deposit is close to depletion and its output will be going down, to estimated 40 mln tonnes a year by 2030.
“Once completed, Stage One of the project will enable EVRAZ KGOK to maintain its annual ore production at 59 mln tonnes, with the Kachkanar-proper deposit securing 22 percent of the total output by 2024”, – noted Denis Novozhonov, EVRAZ vice-president, Head of the Urals Division. – “It will guarantee a stable workload for EVRAZ NTMK, another major industrial player of the region.”
The Kachkanar-proper deposit is located on the slopes of the Kachkanar mountain, five kilometres away from Gusevogorskoye deposit. The stripping pit is up to six kilometres long and four kilometres wide, the ore-bearing strata are located at heights of 220 to 630 metres above sea level. The total reserves of ferrous titanium-magnetite ores are estimated now at 6.87 bln tonnes, with an average iron content of 16.6 percent. Based on the company’s annual consumption of 60 mln tonnes, the deposit may last for over 100 years.
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