Metalloinvest Management Company LLC, Moscow, Russia:
A. A. Ugarov, Vice Chief Executive Officer – Director of Production
R. I. Ismagilov, Director of Mining and Production Department
B. P. Badtiev, Deputy Director of Mining and Production Department, b.badtiev@metalloinvest.com
I. I. Borisov, Deputy Chief Engineer on Drilling-and-Blasting

The ore supply base of Metalloinvest company is composed of products of two structural divisions, namely, Russia’s largest Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky mining and processing plants (GOKs). The buildup of the strategic competitive power is considered by Metalloinvest management in the form of reaching high economic effi ciency of all production processes by means of improvement of the existing and introduction of new technologies. Among the starting and key processes is drilling-andblasting, reliability and efficiency of which govern the failure-free and smooth performance of the open pit mining and processing systems. In 1996 Lebedinsky GOK became one of Russian pioneer producers of emulsion explosives of the type of Tovan based on the technology of ETI, Canada, and in 2001 Mikhailovsky GOK was the fi rst to implement a modular technology developed by GosNII Kristal for the production of Granemits. Specialized drilling-and-blasting services allow solving scale-wise unique production problems, the annual quantity of blasted rock makes 70 Mm3 in high-strength rock mass under complicated ground and hydrogeological conditions. Another difficulty is represented by the accepted four-week cycle of production blasting. Aimed to cut down the fi nal cost of products, the production and investment policy of Metalloinvest has enabled large-scale technical upgrading of drilling rigs and charging machines as well as rapid modernization of production of emulsion explosives. As a result, inside the last three years, blasting expenditures have been reduced by more than 20%.

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