URAL COPPER MINE MECHANIZES; POSTWAR COPPER OUTPUT UP 81 PERCENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600370590-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2011
• Sequence Number: 590
• Publication Date: January 29, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

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STATE
ARMY
CONRDENTIAL
NSRB DISTRIBbTION::
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VuNFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY USSR, Urals DATE OF
INFORMATION 1945 - 1950
SUBJECT Economic - Nonferrous metals, copper
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodicals
WHERE
PUBLISHED' Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED Apr, dill 1950
THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES WITHIN THE MEANING OF ESPIONAGE ACT SO
U. S. C.. 31 AND 2E. AS AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE RIVELATION
OF ITS CONTENTS IN ANY MANNER TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS PRO'
HIBIT[O BY LAW. REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM IS PROHIBIT[-.
DATE DIST. 0 Jan 1951
NO. OF PAGES 4
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
URAL COPPER MINE MECHANIZES'
POSTWAR COPPER OUTPUT UP 81 PERCENT
5umbers in parentheses refer to appended list of sources_7
The Blyavinskiy Mine in the Urals is a large mining enterprise extract-
ing.copper-sulfur ores by underground methods. The largest lentil, the Sever-
naya of the deposit Is the one being worked at present. The lentil which con-
tains up to 90 percent of all reserves of the deposit, is 500 meters long
along the strike, its average thickness is 60-65 meters, and it dips to the
southwest at a 1,5- to 60-degree angle. The ore ic varied in physical proper-
ties (from porous to very solid). The average coefficient for solidity, ac-
cording to the scale of "G-iavmed" (Main Administration of the Copper Industry),
is 6-8.
The lentil is opened by two vertical shafts and is undercut to the north
by a 1,619-meter tunnel.. The shafts are joined by crosscuts with the drift
o.[ the footwall and by crossdrifts with the drift of the hanging wall. The
upper part of the deposit is worked on two levels: the level between 71 and
405 meters is worked by horizontal cuts with fill but without timberine and
by the system of sublevel drifts; the level above 405 meters is worked by top
slicing.(l) All mined ore is chuted to the level of ,he tunnel and from there-
is transported by electric locomotive to the lower industrial area, to the
crushing and screening installation, and then to the railroad bunkers.
The mine has up-to-date equipment. Several basic labor-consuming proc-
esses, however, had not been mechanized completely until recently, and this
had delayed a further increase in mine output and in labor producti.vity. At
the end of 1945, when a plan for complex mechanization of the mine was pro-
posed, hand labor constituted 27 percent of the total work involved in ore
loading in advangyig the workings, 12.9 percent of ore loading at the faces,
and 25 percent in filling the rooms.
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During the postwar Five-Year Plan, a number of important problems were
solved successfully by the mine's engineers and technicians, making it pos-
sible in 1949 to achieve complex mechanization of basic mining operations.
For drilling operations in all working faces, a steady supply of com-
pressed air at 5.5-6 atmospheres is provided. R-39, OM-5o6, and PA-23 hand
drill hammers and TP-4 telescope drill hammers are used. These hand drills
are installed on extension-type support columns.
Until 1946, the speed of advancing the faces did not usually exceed
15-20 meters per month. From 1946 on, the mine began to use the previously
abandoned SG-15 scraper loaders and introduced PML-4 loading machines. Thus,
in 1949, hand loading in advancing the faces was completely abolished and
the speed of advancing the faces reached 60 meters per month.
In mining out the faces, hand labor was used for the most part in load-
ing the ore under the top slicing and room and pillar method and also in
filling the rooms and delivering support timber.
Ural copper mines are. making extensive use of the variant of top slic-
ing which employs accumulation drifts. Under these conditions, the mines
began mass introduction of scraper winches, thereby sharply reducing the
volume of hand labor. The extent of hand labor, however, was still con-
siderable in thea operations because it was necessary to load ore by hand
in the short approaches (zakhodka) and at the beginning of crosscuts. Later
on, a method of using scraper winches in these areas was found, and hand
labor in leading ore in the top slicing system was completely eliminated
in 1949.
In recent years, 15-kilowatt scraper winches have been introduced in
the place of low-power 10-kilowatt winches and the distance between the ore
chutes has been cut to 12-15 meters instead of the former 18-20 meters. These
improvements helped to mechanize effectively ore loading and filling of rooms
in mining rooms by horizontal slicing.
LS-2 and IU-15 10-15 kilowatt scraper winches are used in mining the
faces. They are reinforced by two or three buntons and additional timbers
are not needed. The work of installing the winch, including the time used
in delivering it to the work area, takes no more than 4-5 hours. Rake-type
scrapers with a capacity of 0.15 cubic meter are used. It is rarely neces-
sary to bring winches to the surface machine shops, since capital repairs
are done at the work area. In the accumulation drifts in the sublevel cross-
cut system, 25-kilowatt scraper winches with 0.3-cubic-meter capacity scrapers
are used. These have a productivity of up to 500 tons of ore per day.
The nlmb.r of operating scraper winches increased in 1949 by 64 percent
over 1946 and the number of timber-hoisting pneumatic winches increased 3.5
times. The decisive factor in the high productivity of the scraper winches
is the creation of a permanent and well-trained group of scraper operators,
a profession which has been successfully mastered by women at the Blyavinskiy
Mine.
Support timber and other materials are conveyed entirely by electric
locomotive and are hoisted by LK-1 one-drum pneumatic winches.
In 1949, the Blyavinskiy Mine achieved complete mechanization of basic
processes of mining as a result of all these measures. Filling operations
also have been mechanized. On the surface, the fill material is carried to
the hoist winzes by scraper winches. The rooms are filled also with the aid
of scraper winches and by chuting of waste from the caving zone (in filling
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DGAFIDENTIAL
rooms which have been worked by sublevel crosscuts). The cavities left under
the overhead block of untouched ore when the rooms are fully mined out, are
filled with a clayey pulp, and are sometimes filled by hand, since a method
of mechanization has not yet been found for these conditions.
Trolley-type electric locomotives and VOK-160 cars with a 1.6-cubic-
meter capacity are used in underground haulage of fill material. A one-drum
scraper winch with a DC motor operating from the overhead network is assem?-
bled on the locomotive for dumping the car. Complete mechanization has
helped not only to meet current fill operations, but also to eliminate in
1949 the lag in filling old rooms.
In 1949, the Blyavinskiy-- Mine was able to do away with hand labor in
all those operations in which it had long been used.
Table 1. Mechanization of Underground Operations
at Blyavinskiy Mine (percent)
Type of Work
End of
1945*
1946
1949
Loading in advancing operations.
73.0
81.0
99.6
Loading in mining the faces
87.1
90.0
99.6
Filling rooms
75.0
89.5
100.0
* In the period when the complex mechanization plan for the mine was be-
ing drawn up.(2)
Table 2 shows the volume of transport work done by mechanized methods,
in percent of the total volume of work:
Table 2. Mechanization of Transport
at Blyavinskiy Mine (percent)
Underground Surface Ore Loading on
Year Haulage Haulage Railroad Cars
1948 100 100 80
100 100 100 (1)
Table 3 shows'the share of different mining systems in the work.of the
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Table 3. Mining Systems Employed
at Blyavinskiy Mine (percent)
System
1945
1946
1949
Top slicing
38.0
36.0
71.5
Horizontal slicing with fill,
without timbering
41.3
36.0
20.3
Sublevel crosscuts
20.7
28.0
8.2
Trolley-type electric locomotives with weight on drivers from 6-14 tons
and Soviet-built cars with a capacity of 1.6-2.2 cubic meters, are used for
all underground and surface haulage of ore. The cars are unloaded on unload-
ing curves at reduced locomotive speed.
The surface crushing and screening installation for crushing and sorting
ore according to size has been completely mechanized. Loading of ore into
railroad cars is done from bunkers and by excavators (from dumps).
The steadily increasing level of mechanization at the mine has resulted
in a continual rise in output of ore and in labor productivity, despite the
increase in the use of the top slicing method, a more labor-consuming method
of mining. In 1949, ore output increased 23.1 percent over 1948 and 81 per-
cent over 1946. Labor productivity of mine workers increased correspondingly
by 10 and 28 percent.
The Blyavinskiy Mine is now planning to introduce complete mechanization
in all surface operations and to improve mechanization of mining operations.
The following measures should be put into effect for these goals:
1. Completely mechanize loading and unloading, particularly in connec-
tion with railroad transport -- unloading of timber, scrap, fuel and equip-
ment, loading of metal scrap and apportioning the ore when loading into cars
on scales; mechanize timbering and filling and organize storehouses on the
surface for this purpose.
2. Convert scraper winches to remote control and introduce removable
drill bits and drill carriages in advancing the workings; discover a method
of mechanizing the timbering of faces and advance workings.
3. Increase skills of workers operating machines and improve the opera-
tion and productivity of the machines.
4. Improve the technology of mining ore by top slicing and provide maxi-
mum recovery of lump ore.(2)
SOURCES
1. Moscow, Mekhanizetsiya Trudoyemkikh i Tyazhelykh
Rabot, Vol 4, No 4, Apr 50
2. Moscow, Gornyy Zhurnal, No 7, Jul 50
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