Uralgiproruda Institute, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

Yu. V. Vlokh, Chief Specialist of Open Pit Mining Sector, mail@ugruda.ru

Kachkanar Mining and Processing Integrated Works (since 2011 EVRAZ Kachkanar Mining and Processing Integrated Works) is the world’s only practice dealing with low-grade vanadium-bearing titanium-magnetite ore. It is located at the town of Kachkanar in the north-east of the Sverdlovsk Region. The plant is supplied with raw materials from Gusevogorskoe titanium–magnetite ore deposit. Based on the approved reserves of Gusevogorskoe deposit (round 3 Bt), under the projects by the Uralgiproruda Institute, Kachkanar MPIW construction stage I started in 1957. Commissining of Kachkanar MPIW production stage I at the annual capacity of 33 Mt took place in 1963. Later on, after completion of construction stages II and III, the capacity was elevated to 45 Mt of ore per year by 1985. For more than half a century long operation of Gusevogorskoe deposit, the iron ore reserves within mine field stage I had been greatly depleted. After Rosnedra State Reserves Committee had approved new standards for Gusevogoskoe deposit in 2013, MiraMine company accomplished re-appraisal of the remaining mineral reserves. As of January 1, 2015, the titanium-magnetite ore deposit contained 3.5 Bt of economic reserves and 2 Mt of noncommercial reserves. Kachkanar Mining and Processing Integrated Works is a captain of Russian mining industry, supported by highly productive mining machinery of domestic and foreing manufacture and by advanced mineral mining and processing technologies. The current scale of open pit mining and marketable product output (pellets and agglomerates for metallurgical industry) totals: actual mining — 58 Mt; overburden removal — 5.2 Mm³; pellet production — 6.7 Mt. After extraction of most of stage I reserves, working zones in open pit mines at Gusevogorskoe deposit reduced and open pit mining output diminished as a result. Development prospects for EVRAZ Kachkanar MPIW and replenishment of Gusevogorskoe deposit reserves in the right quantity are connected with the development of Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoe deposit. The latter, as Gusevogorskoe deposit, adjoins the Kachkanar gabbro–pyroxenite massif and is located 5 km westwards the production infrastructure site of Zapadny open pit mine at Gusevogorskoe deposit. The ore reserves are the same as Gusevogorskoe deposit contains. As per the project documentation, joint mining to be started at at Gusevogorskoe and Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoe deposits in 2021 will ensure long-term (for more than 100 years) sustainable operation of Kachkanar MPIW with crude ore production at a level of 59 Mt per year.

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