Uralkali prepares for shaft sinking at Ust-Yayvinsky mine
MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - Uralkali plans to begin shaft sinking at its Ust-Yayvinsky mine in July, the company said in a press release.
Preparatory work is currently underway at the construction site. "We have just completed the drilling of freezing holes and we plan to proceed directly to freezing which will enable us to begin shaft sinking," Uralkali Chief Engineer Yevgeny Kotlyar is quoted in the press release as saying.
"The drilling of 50 freezing holes that will ensure the freezing of wet soil and safe rock excavation during construction of skip shaft No. 1 was completed in June," the press release says "The skip shaft will be used to lift sylvinite ore to the surface," it says. Each of the freezing holes is 245 meters deep.
"Contractors have begun construction of foundations for the headframe," it says.
At the same time, freezing holes are being drilled at mining shaft No. 2. This is a shaft cage designed for lowering and raising people and loads, it says.
Uralkali won the tender to develop Ust-Yayvinsky in 2004. Registered reserves in the license territory total about 1.3 billion tonnes of sylvinite ore, which will take 30-35 years to deplete. Design capacity for the new mine is 2.8 million tonnes of potassium chloride a year. Production will begin in 2020 and reach full capacity in 2025. Investment in construction of the mine will total more than $1.6 billion.