NONFERROUS METAL INDUSTRY REPORTS PROGRESS; SOME SET-BACKS NOTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360030-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: November 6, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
OR - El
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
CLASSIFICATION SECRET
HOW
PUBLISHED-,
Daily newspapers; monthly periodical
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. 6 Nov 1950
NO. OF PAGES 6
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
WHERE
PUBL'ISHED' . USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED 18 Jun - 31 Aug 1950
LANGUAGE Russian
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DIFINIS
Of THE UNITED STATES WITHIN TAI SIANINS OF ISPIONASI ACT SO
U. S. C.. SI AND SS, AS AMENDED. ITS TEANSNISSION ON INS SITUATION
Of ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHOSIIED PERSON IS PR0-
MIIITID BY LAW. SIPRODUCTION Of THIS FORM IS PIOAINITID.
Newspapers @nd periodical as indicated.
NONFERROUS METAL INDUSTRY REPORTS PROGRESS;
SOME SET BACKS NOTED
umbers in parentheses refer to appended list of sources
A?group of mine and trade union workers, in an open letter to
the editor of Trud, report that the problem of underground venti-
lation in the mining industry has not yet been completely solved.
Even the most effective ventilation system cannot do away entirely with
the?'harmful effects c:,' dust directly in the stopes and in the operation of re-
loading the mined ore. Existing systems of dust collectors and devices for
individual protection from dust are structurally imperfect and only slightly
suitable.
Four years ago, a special commission, headed by Academician A. A. Sko-
chinskiy, was organized in the Academy of Sciences USSR to study this prob-
lem. The commission created auxiliary commissions for work in outlaying dis-
tricts. The commission's duties are to manage scientific work on combating
dust formation and to prevent diseases connected with the effects of dust.
There has not yet been any evidence of the results of the4 years of op-
eration of this commission, and the problem has not been basically solved. One
well-known scientist, Academician Rebinder, has stated that if a specified
quantity of soap-naphtha is added to the water in wet drilling, considerable
effect is achieved, since the soap-naphtha helps to remove a 'substantial
amount of the finer dust particles. The commission, however, has not attempted
to prove this theory in-industrial tests.
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The Sverdlovsk Institute of Labor Safety of the All-Union Central Council
of Trade Unions is testing the effectiveness of wetting dust with water contain-
ing new additives. Tests have had outstanding results. But the members of the
commission, including even Academician Rebinder, have not taken active part in
this work.
Engineers Svjadoshch, Bogatov, and Miller have developed a combination
ventilator and dust absorber, the test model of which has been tested at the
Sokol'nyy Mine in Ridder, Vostochno-Kazakhstan Oblast, and at the Krivoy Rog
Mine imeni Karl Libknekht with outstanding results. The commission has failed
to show any interest in this work.
The Ministry of the Metallurgical Industry conducted a contest for the best
proposal on methods of combating mine dust. Many proposals were turned in, but
the commission has not yet studied them
On the other hand, the commission and its auxiliaries have considered many
theoretical problems fai removed from production practice. For example, the com-
mission members have for a long time been studying the foreign practice of alumin-
otherapy, when it should have been obvious to them from the beginning that no se-
rious contribution to miners' welfare could come from such sources. Practice has
already proved that aluminotherapy is of no use whatever in combating industrial
diseases.
The problem which must be solved include not only that of removing the dust
by washing, but also those of finding methods of extracting and transporting ore
with the least possible formation of dust and of improving individual protective
meysures. Practical aid is needed also in the drive against dust in surface en-
terprises, particularly in Diiu.s brick plants where the quartzite dust consists
almost entirely of free silicon dioxides.(1)
V. Ogloblin, chief of the administration of the Frunze Mining
Region, writes that an analysis of the work of mining enterprises in
Kirgiz SSR has shown that in many mines little attention is given to
the goal of decreasing ore losses in mining.
At the end of 1947, the State Mining Inspection was created by a decree of
the Council of Ministers USSR. Its duties are to conserve resources, control
exploitation of deposits, and combat losses in mining. In the majority of min-
ing enterprises, it has become the practice to establish a norm for permissible
exploitation losses along with the approval of the annual production plan.
These planned norms are determined by actual loss data for each mine and usually
constitute 15-20 percent of the reserves. However, the actual volume of losses
in Kirgiz mining enterprises, particularly in the coal industry, considerably
exceeds the planned norms. Only limited calculations of losses are made in even
the best mines. An excess in losses over the norm is not considered inefficient,
and the guilty parties are not made responsible for losses. Bookkeepers' re-
coras do not reflect either the large or the small losses.(2)
The nonferrous metallurgy industry in Kazakhstan is the republic's leading
branch of industy, and Kazakhstan is the chief base of the USSR for nonferrous
metals production. In he Postwar Five-Year Plan, Kazakhstan takes third place
in the USSR, after the R2'SR and the Ukraine, in the volume of capital invest-
ments-(3)
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In 1950, workers at the Balkhash Copper-Smelting Plant, Karaganda Oblast,
considerably improved their technical indexes. The volume of metal smelting is
cont'_nually increasing. and the general order of production is being improved.
For a long time, however, the chief shortcoming of the plant had been the high
cost of production, which reflected on the fulfillment of the entire production-
program. After an extensive campaign throughout the plant for economy of ma-
terials and fuel, results began to appear. The plant completed the 6-month
plan ahead of schedule, and in the second quarter was able to exceed production
plans as the result of a decrease in the copper content of the waste slags and
of utilization of copper-bearing material. In June alone, consumption of elec-
tr:'c vower was cut by 400,000 kilowatt-hours more than required by the norm. In May,
the plant saved almost one million rubles' worth of materials, fuel, and power,
and these indexes have not been decreased since then. The above-plan accumla-
tions of the plant now exceed 1,600,000 rubles.(4) Workers in the plant's metal-
lurgical shop have been exceeding the monthly plans for smelting blister copper.
A brigade operating one converter has increased the inter-repair period from 3
to 4 months by taking better care of the furnace.(5)
Copper produced at the Krasnoural'sk Copper-Smelting Plant is the cheapest
copper produced it the Urals. All melts at the plant are high speed. The melt-
ing of the charge per square meter of furnace has been increased 25 percent and
fuel consumption decreased 8 percent.(6)-
In Armenian SSR, the Alaverdi Copper Plant fulfilled the July plan for
blister copper 104.9 percent and for cathode copper 100.15 percent, while the
water-jacket furnace division fulfilled the plan for melting of the charge by
101 percent. All other shops also successfully completed the July plans. The
converter division is regularly fulfilling the daily blister-copper plans 110-
115 percent.(7)
The Shamlug Mines in Armenia fulfilled the 7-month plan 100.3 percent for
mining copper ore and 114.3 percent for mine development work, and exceeded the
plan for metal content in the ore by 3.6 percent.(8)
The Zangezur Mine Administration (director, G. Kamtarzhyan) reports that
great improvements have been made in the postwar period. In 1946, the admin-
istration had exceeded the 1945 copper-mining level by 6 percent, by 21 per-
cent in 1947, 44 percent in 1948, and 79 percent in 1949. It expects to ex-
ceed the 1945 level by 113 percent in 1950. A corresponding increase in out-
put of copper concentrates has been achieved. In 1950, labor productivity per
worker increased 45 percent over 1945. Labor-consuming processes, including
breaking down of the ore mass and haulage, have for the most part been completely
mechanized. Hand drilling in horizontal workings has been eliminated by the use
of pneumatic support columns with simultaneous use of wet drilling. This has in-
creased drilling speed.
Mining methods have been considerably improved. In the "Kapital'naya shtol'-
nya" Mine and the Saralykhskiy Sector, the cutting of rooms in the shrinkage stopes
is no longer done from the level of the main haulage tunnel but from the sublevel
drifts which have been cut 4-6 meters above this tunnel. This measure has helped
to spied loading of ore, to improve operations in the haulage, tunnel, and to in-
troduce scraper loading of ore on a wider scale.
Despite these achievements, much remains to be done in the field of mechani-
zation. The following measures must be adopted: introduction of scraper loading
of ore and rock in advance workings, mechaniation of timber hoisting in advanc-
ing vertical workings, use of loading machines, and: introduction of core drilling.
Mine No 7-10 is scheduled to adopt a mining method new to the administration.
The new method includes the system of open rooms with removal of ore from the sub-
level drifts, working of ore blocks between rooms by counterboring them with deep
holes, using core drills and machines, and subsequent mass blasting of the blocks.(9)
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The administration's Mine No 5-6 (chief, G. Gevorkyan), which had been
lagging for over a year, has finally improved its work. Whereas in the first
quarter 1950 the mine completed only 84 percent of the plan for prospecting,
76 percent for breaking down the ore, 81.2 percent for mining the ore, and
90 percent for.corper content in the ore, in July the plans for these types
of work were completed 102-133 percent.
Organization of labor, one of the chief causes of the previous lag, was
improved, with the result that in July, labor productivity of the face miners
increased by 8-10 percent. in the first quarter, the chief bottleneck in the
mine's operations was the low productivity of the haulers. In one shift, only
100 carloads of ore were hauled from the 40th level. Now, idleness of equip-
ment has been eliminated, and twice as much ore is being hauled from the level.
Introduction of technical improvements has made it possible to remove the ore
through an ore chute, greatly increasing labor productivity and speeding the
movement of ore to the flotation plant.
Electric power lines are to be installed throughout all the stopes and
along the narrow-gauge line in the immediate future. Workshops for current
repair jobs are being organized in some of the stopes. The mine has now ex-
ceeded all other mines and shops of the administration in its indexes for ful-
fillment of production plans.(10)
ZINC, POLYMETALLIC ENTERPRISES EXCEED PLANS
The Ust'-Kamenogorsk Zinc Plant, Vostochno-Kazakhstan Oblast, took first
place in the all-Union competition for the second quarter 1950 and won the
Transferable Red Banner of the Council of Ministers. Equipment productivity
at the plant is 50 percent above plan. Recovery of metal from ore also ex-
ceeds the plan. One of the plant's workers has developed a special metal
hoist mechanism which is used in the electrolytic shop to lift the cathodes
from the tanks. In all Soviet zinc plants, this process iz done by hand. In
Ust'-Kamenogorsk, this process has now been completely mechanized. Output
of metal at the plant has increased 31.6 percent over July 1949 and labor pro-
ductivity 83 percent.(11)
The complex organization of labor is being widely introduced in the Lenino-
gorsk mines. At the Sokol'nyy and Leninogorsk mines, the number of complex
brigades of miners has doubled-since the beginning of the year. The work of
complex brigades is conducted according to a strict schedule, and each shift
does drilling, blasting, collects the ore, and timbers the stope. The complex
organization of labor has helped miners to expand the stoping area and to use
extensively the multistope method of drilling. Each brigade serves two or
three stopes each.(12)
In Taldy-Kurgan Oblast, Kazakh SSR, the Tekeli Mine has begun to adopt
new methods of mining, such as deep drilling and dispersal of the drill holes
according to the structure and hardness of the rock. The auxiliary shops of
the mine, however, are not operating satisfactorily. The drill repair shop,
for example, turns out poor work, the drills breaking down after a few minutes
of work. Nothing has been done to eliminate loss of air in the main air line,
with the result that the pressure is low and pneumatic machinery can be operated
at only half capacity. Rozenblyum, Voronov, and Zobnin, directors of the mine,
are at fault for not taking measures to combat these conditions.(11)
The Kimpersay Mines, Aktyubinsk Oblast, completed the 8-month plan ahead
of schedule for mining ore and development work. The plan for stripping was
considerably exceeded. The Vostochnyy Kimpersay Mine has produced much above-
plan ore toward the September plan.(11)
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Miners in the Sadon region, North Osetian ASSR, are steadily improving
their production indexes. The 7-month gross-production plan was fulfilled
123.3 percent. The Verkhne-Zgidskiy Mine took the lead in the competition.
In July, the mine's output of ore increased 71 percent over January 1950.(13)
The Severoural'sk Bauxite Mines, Sverdlovsk Oblast, have completed the
Five-Year Plan for mining bauxite. In the postwar years, dozens of kilometers
of underground horizontal workings have been cut through by high-speed methoda.(14)
In April 1950, a brigade headed by Minzaripov, Laureate of the Stalin Prize,
advanced 268.6 running meters along one face in Northern Mine No 3, achieving
on some days a speed as high as 10.75 running meters. This is the highest speed
achieved by any mine in the Ministry of the Metallurgical Industry. Minzaripov
has changed previous views on the speed of advancing mine workings. Several
years ago, the usual speed for advancing horizontal mine workings did not exceed
25-30 meters per month, whereas now, according to conditions set up for the all-
Union competition of advancing brigades, the monthly speed of a worker in this
profession in horizontal workings should be no less than 50 meters, and for the
Severoural'sk workers, 80 meters per month. There are many followers of Min-
zaripov in the copper mines of the Urals and Kazakhstan and in the lead and
zinc, tin, nickel, and iron mines of the Urals, but their achievements are still
being introduced too slowly, particularly in the Krivoy Rog Iron Mines.
The decisive factor in Minzaripov's success is the utilization of complex
mechanization in all labor-consuming mining processes. In use are heavy-duty
drills and loading machines, electric locomotives for haulage, and modernized
ventilation systems, all of which have been developed since the war in Soviet
mine equipment and machine-building plants. A second important factor is the
organization of labor according to the six-cycle-per-day schedule, with two
cycles completed per shift. The duration of each cycle has been considerably
reduced by the practice of intermingling of operations -- drilling and load-
ing and drilling and timbering of the stopes. Every detail of the cycle is
well thought out ahead of time.(15)
1. Moscow, Trud, 15 Aug 50
2. Frunze, Sovetskaya Kirgiziya, 23 Jul 50
3. Yerevan, Kommunist, 18 Jun 50
4. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 13 Aug 50
5. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 23 Aug 50
6. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 15 Aug 50
7. Yerevan, Kommunist, 10 Aug 50
8. Yerevan, Kommunist, 27 Aug 50
9. Yerevan, Kommuniat, 22 Aug 50
10. Yerevan, Kommunist, 16 Aug 50
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11. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 31 Aug 50
12. Alma-Ata, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 10 Aug 50
13. Moscow, Krasnaya Zvezda, 25 Aug 50
14. Moscow, Izvestiya, 12 Aug 50
15. Moscow, Goruyy Zhurnal, No 7, Jul 50
50X1-HUM
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