OPERATION FOCUS
Shakhtostroy general contractor carrying out
the development work. Kazzinc-Shakhtostroy is
a modern mine construction and development
company. Its core business is construction of
underground and surface ore mining facilities
covering a wide range of capital development,
preproduction, installation and electrical
maintenance works. Two Kazzinc-Shakhtostroy
sites are located in Ridder and Altay
respectively. So far during development 290,000
t have been mined at Dolinny for 7,000 t Zn,
4,000 t Pb, 1,000 t Cu, 26 t Ag and 2 t Au. As at
Ridder-Sokolny, gold is the main driver at
Dolinny with 2018 NSR figures of 74% Au, 11%
Ag, 9% Zn, 3% Pb and 3% Cu.
Finally some details on the RMCC
concentrator – it employs about 700 people, and
between 1791 and 2019 produced 261 Mt of
metal concentrates. Its current supply entails Cu
ore and Pb-Zn ore from Ridder-Sokolny, ore and
heavy fractions and slimes from Tishinsky, and
polymetallic ore from Dolinny. As mentioned is
also takes pre-concentrate from another Kazzinc
operation, Zhairem MCC. The main concentrator
products are Au, Cu, Pb, Zn concentrates which
are produced from seven different types of raw
materials all processed at the same time; in all
3.67 Mt a year.
All ores from Tishinsky, Ridder-Sokolny,
Dolinny and gold-bearing tailings are treated in
separate sections of the Ridder concentrator.
Given the wide variety of ore types ranging from
sulphide zinc/lead/copper to silicate gold and
gold-bearing tailings, the concentrator has a
number of distinct treatment circuits. Zinc
concentrates are shipped to Ridder
Metallurgical Complex (RMC), lead and gold
concentrates are shipped to the Ust-
Kamenogorsk lead smelter for treatment and
copper concentrates are also shipped to the
Ust-Kamenogorsk metallurgical complex to the
copper smelter. Tailings are pumped
hydraulically to the Talovskoe tailings dam 4 km
outside of town, from where the water is
recirculated back to the concentrator.
Mining methods and technology
Dolinny is located 3 km east from Ridder’s
outskirts. Its construction began in 2015 and is
being completed in 2020. Two mineral deposits
(Dolinnoe first, followed by Obrychevskoe) have
been accessed by two inclined shafts and
several ventilation holes. A sublevel stoping and
backfill mining method is to be used to extract
Dolinny ore. By February 2017 the output of
development ore including the ore extracted
from the pilot block was already 40,000 t.
During the IM visit, the main infrastructure
elements were being finalised, with the main
ventilation fan starting up in June 2019 and the
backfill plant in July 2019. The mine has a high
level of automation and
digitalisation, and by end 2019
as an example all employees
(using cap lamp chips) and
mining machinery locations
were able to be visualised in
the control room, with all
operators and workers
connected by radio. The
digitalisation makes
management of material and
equipment flows much easier.
The company said that the
project had been a mix of
using in-house expertise as
well as equipment OEM solutions and elements
of MICROMINE’s Pitram system.
MICROMINE states: “Pitram Automated forms
part of the Pitram Control Room solution, and
greatly reduces signal volumes across the radio
network, through automatically transmitting key
data from equipment. Pitram Automated
revolutionises the mine control room, providing
an adaptable user interface for low-level data
entry roles as well as for higher-level
administrators and in-shift mine managers. Data
capture is via on-board touch screens installed
in the cabs of operating mine vehicles and
ancillary equipment.” RMCC Director Alexey
Alexandrovich Kotov told IM that as all mines
are unique, customisation is still needed and so
they worked with both Pitram and their own
input. Installing automation is not new to
Kazzinc as a project at Maleyevsky mine using
Pitram Automated as well as RPMGlobal
XECUTE started in December 2017.
Already at Dolinny (and at other RMCC mines)
line of sight remote control LHD operation is
used in the stopes but in 2020 this is being
updated with full video control and monitoring
(and ultimately automation) with the operator
sitting in a separate control room underground
nearby. Then the operator mans the same LHD
once loaded for ore pass or truck loading.
This is being applied across the fleet
including the Caterpillar LHDs and underground
trucks, Sandvik longhole production drill rigs
(mainly DL420 which drills up to 120 m) and
mainly Epiroc development jumbos with some
Sandvik models (Epiroc Boomer 282 and
Sandvik DD321); using each company’s
automation platform as appropriate eg Sandvik
AutoMine, Cat Command for Underground and
Epiroc RCS.
Stopes at RMCC are typically 25-30,000 t
measuring 15 by 20 by 45 m. The new Dolinny
mine uses cascade stoping involving a first
stage of three sublevels mined from the top
down and backfilled with cemented backfill then
a second stage mining upwards with larger
stopes of 45-50,000 t and backfilling with
An LHD operator at the Dolinny mine preparing
to leave the machine for line of sight RC
operation while mucking out the stope
mainly waste. This second stage is due to start
end 2020.
The company did say it had seen the
Caterpillar electric LHD as tested in Sudbury
and was interested in both new electric
equipment and battery conversions but that
there will be a considerable amount of work to
be carried out on the necessary charging and
maintenance infrastructure. Currently all the
haulage fleets remain diesel with cable tethered
drilling. RMCC did trial a tethered Epiroc LHD
which worked well for over 10 years but which
was removed in 2018. It was efficient but the
cable could make working difficult in busy
production areas. Elsewhere at the Kazzinc Altay
mining complex (at the Maleyevsky mine, which
is Kazzinc's largest underground operation), a
Kiruna Truck (overhead trolley) fleet was used
for four years but was not achieving the same
productivity as the diesel machines as well as
not offering much flexibility as the mine
develops.
At Tishinsky, trackless equipment is used for
mining performed primarily by sublevel
(downward) stoping with backfill. A heavy
media plant is located on the surface, removing
up to 20% waste rock from the run of mine. The
following products are produced after ore
processing at the heavy media plant: heavy
fraction, floats, filtered slimes and thickener
overflow. The heavy fraction and filtered slimes
are railed to Ridder Concentrator for processing.
Floats are used for mined-out stopes backfilling
at Tishinsky mine. An innovative and efficient
ultrafine granulated slag grinding line was put
into operation.
Since 2009 the handheld equipment initially
used for ore mining is being gradually replaced
by mobile machinery (today handheld-mobile
ratio is 45/55).
Depending on mining techniques (handheld
or mechanised) and ore body morphology and
FEBRUARY 2020 | International Mining