Southern Kuzbass launches new Sibirginskaya coalface

New production area at Sibirginskaya

Southern Kuzbass Coal Company, part of Mechel, has commissioned a new coalface at the Sibirginskaya underground mine in Russia’s Kemerovo region. The production area contains industrial reserves of 1.4 million tonnes of coking coal. The company expects extraction of these reserves to take approximately 18 months. The launch concerns a new section within the existing mine.

Preparation of the coalface involved 2.5 kilometres of mine workings. The area starts at a depth of 264 metres below the surface. Its average extraction thickness is 3.5 metres. Southern Kuzbass’s asset base includes three underground mines, four surface mines and four coal washing plants, together with supporting enterprises in the Kemerovo region.

Mechel corporate emblem

Equipment and operating team

The new coalface, designated 3-2-7 BIS, has a mechanized longwall complex with 105 support sections. The equipment includes:

Face and crosscut scraper conveyors.
A belt conveyor and a longwall shearer.
A crushing unit and a scraper transfer conveyor.

The team from Production Section No. 1 is working at the new face under foreman Yevgeny Tolochkov. Extraction is taking place in the second layer of the seam. Mechel identifies this as work requiring careful planning, specialist knowledge and experience. The company states that the installed equipment meets industrial safety and occupational health requirements.

Development of the existing mine

Construction of Sibirginskaya began in 1999. A state commission signed the mine’s acceptance act in 2002, when the first coalface, 3-1-1, was launched. Workers produced the first million tonnes in 2003. By the twentieth-anniversary announcement on 23rd November 2022, cumulative output had reached 17.7 million tonnes, with more than 77 kilometres of mine workings completed.

The original development included track, conveyor, flank and ventilation shafts, main workings and a ventilation installation. Supporting infrastructure included a boiler house, warehouse, firefighting and industrial water pumping facilities, settling tanks, and power and lighting lines. The mine’s opening created more than 600 jobs for residents of Novokuznetsk, Osinniki, Mezhdurechensk and Myski.