Kommunar Mine, Kommunar, Russia:

I. G. Bogatyrev, Chief Engineer, kom.rudnik@gmail.ru
V. E. Sutormin, Chief Geologist

IPKON, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia:
E. N. Esina, Senior Researcher, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

The beginning of the development of the gold mining industry in the Kommunar gold-bearing area dates back to 1833 with the placer mining. The extraction of ore gold from the famous Bogomdarovannaya vein began in 1899. The Civil war and devastation of the country led to the conservation of the mine. The restoration of the mine began in 1928, and on the basis of the carried out geological exploration and improvement of the dressing processes, the Kommunar turned from thee abandoned mine into an enterprise that had been provided with reserves for many years. Mining was carried out in a hybrid way – a combination of open and underground works. Housing, cultural and educational institutions were built. Since 1976 underground mining started using mobile mining machines of both imported and domestic manufacture. The decline in production occurred in the 1990s. The way out of this situation was found by infusion into a group of UGC Gold Mining Company, which led to an increase in the volume of ore extraction and processing. On the basis of the research works, priority directions of the company’s development were formed – advanced development, exploration and mining of the deep horizons of the deposit, as well as increase in the open pit mining capacity based on the existing reserves and reapprised lower level resources, and minimization of the environmental impact. Today Kommunar Mine is a modern gold producer using hybrid open pit/methods at two deposits – Kommunar and Turgayul. Sustainable development of the city-forming enterprise is ensured by the balance of the efficiency indicators of technological processes while minimizing the impact on the environment, taking into account the potential of an ecologically balanced cycle of mineral resource exploitation at all stages of field development.
The study has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 14-37-00050-P.

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