Russia’s leading mining equipment manufacturer and supplier Uralmashplant JSC (UZTM, part of the UZTM-KARTEX Group) successfully completed factory tests recently of the first two domestically made jaw crushers with complex jaw swing (SCHDS range) manufactured for UMMC’s Gaisky GOK underground copper mining complex in Russia which is 280 km east of Orenburg near the northeastern border with Kazakhstan. Previously Uralmashplant only offered the SCHDP jaw crusher range with straight jaw oscillation.

The SCHDS model was developed by specialists at both Uralmashplant and UMMC as part of an import substitution program. Uralmashplant said this is a unique crushing complex for the Russian mining equipment market and previously mining companies could only buy such machines from abroad. The production project of the first domestic SHDS machine was approved by the technical management of UMMC, headed by Andrey Panshin. For Gaisky GOK, UZTM will produce six SCHDS-12x14U units with a capacity of 675 t/h, intended for installation at new levels of the Ekspluatatsionnaya mine. The machines will be delivered to the plant during 2021-2023. “We are grateful to UMMC General Director, Andrey Kozitsyn, and the Commercial Director, Igor Kudryashkin, for the opportunity to implement such a complex project,” says Yan Tsenter, CEO of UZTM – KARTEX Group.

Gaisky produced over 8.3 Mt of copper ore in 2020, ahead of the performance target of 8.215 Mt. Annual output surpassed that of 2018 by 300,000 t. UMMC has a ongoing strategic project in place for opening and development of deep horizons at the 830 to 1,310 m levels has been carried out by Gaisky GOK since 2006. Under this project, a large-scale redevelopment of the Exspluatatsionnaya mine was carried out last year with the deepening of the shaft and replacement of the hoisting machine. The main ventilation unit of the new mine shaft Severnaya Ventilatsionnaya 2 provides ventilation of the horizons located below the 1,000 m mark. Along with the deepening of shafts and construction of new ones, excavation works are also underway.

Moreover, crushing and conveyor facilities, crushing and batching ones, and dozens of other underground facilities are being built under the project, of which the UZTM-KARTEX order is a part. The project implementation will make it possible to increase the underground mine capacity up to 9 Mt of ore, which UMMC is aiming for in 2021.