PRODUCTIVITY AND ROOF CONTROL OF THE MOSCOW BASIN COAL INDUSTRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 182
• Publication Date: September 4, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
COUNTRY USSR DATE OF
SUBJECT Economic - Coal mining INFORMATION 1953
HOW DATE DIST. ` Sep 1953
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers, monthly periodicals 1
LANGUAGE Russian SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
"? "'' "~'"` "'' `? "'""?`? ""'?"'?"' ^~ ?~ "~~~ THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE Newspapers and periodicals as indicated.
PRODUCTIVITY AND ROOF CONTROL
OF THE MOSC(M BASIN COAL INDUSTRY
umbers in parentheses refer to appended sources.?
Productivity
Miners of the Moscow basin completed the 1952 plan ahead of schedule. The
avere.ge daily output was more than two trainloads above that of 1951, and the
plan for development work was also exceeded. Labor productivity increased 4.7
percent, and production costs per ton of fuel dropped 3 rubles 65 kopeks.(1)
Miners of the basin are honorably fulfilling their pre-May obligations.(2)
Moskvougol' Combine
On 30 April, the Moskvougol' Combine completed the 4-month plan for the
extraction and shipping of coal, and it has already delivered tens of trainloads
of coal on its May quota.(3)
On 23 April, miners of Mine No 15-bis of the Stalinogorskugol' Trust
reported fulfillment of the 4-month plan for coal output. They have delivered
the first carloads of fuel on their Na:,- quotas. (4) The Second Kamenetskaya Mine,
also of the Stalinogorskugol' Trust, is lagging. The trust has been forced to
assign this mine a very modest quota, and even this is fulfilled only rarely.(5)
Mine No 41 of the Donskoyugol' Trust mined six trainloads of coal above
the plan in April.(3)
DISTRIBUTION
I I
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4
Krasnoarmeyskugol' and Molotovugol' Trusts
Workers of Mine no 1/2 of the Krasnoarmeyskugol' T_uust and Mine No 3
of the Molotovugol' Trust completed their 4-month quotas ahead of schedule.(4)
Mine No 2 of the Molotovugol' Trust is one of the oldest coal enterprises in
the Uzlovskiy Rayon, and some of its sections are located at a distance of r'ore
than 2 kilometers from the shaft. Recently, the first underground trolley in
the Moscow basin started to operate in this mine. It is made up of ten cars
and transports at one time all miners working in distant sections.(6)
Tulaugol' Combine: Skuratovugol' Trust
Miners of a section of Mine No 9 of the Skuratovugol' Trust are deliver-
ing twice as much coal as is provided for by their quotas.(2)
Roof Control
Friable, small-grained sands or sands with an admixture of clay lie directly
above the coal seam in a considerable number of mines of the Moscow basin. The
thickness of this immediate sandy roof varies, amounting, in some cases, to
20-30 meters. A typical example of such a sandy, unstable roof is to be found
in the roof of the coal seam in Mine No 34 of the Krasnoarmeyskugol' Trust. A
number of other mines in the basin have similar roofs.
Sandy roofs are unstable and do not permit extraction of coal without leav-
ing in the roof a protecting layer of coal. Friable sand can fall in great masses
and with great speed, even when only slight areas of the roof are exposed. If
the protecting layer of coal breaks away, sudden localized falls of sand occur,
and these extend rapidly, leading to a partial or complete obstruction of the
face.
Observations carried out by the Moscow Scientific Research Coal Institute
indicate that the greatest amount of pressure on props at faces with sandy roofs,
under normal conditions of working the 'ace, does not exceed 35-4o tons per
square meter of roof area being supported. In connection with the props, the
lac of uniformity in the durability of the vertical and horizontal units must
be taken into consideration, as well as the slight supporting power of the pro-
tecting layer of coal, and the thickness of the prop must be somewhat increased
so as to decrease the span of the roof between points of support.
Diffe*ent amounts of mine timbers are used for propping purposes, depending
on the particulc' propping regulations being followed: in one case 56.8 cubic
meters of mine timbers are used per 1,000 tons of coal output; in another, 55
cubic meters; and in a third, 44 cubic meters.(7)
Wooden props have been used in Moscow basin coal mines in an overwhelming
majoriiy of cases up to now. -nvestigations and observations carried out in
1950 - 1951 by the Moskvougol' Combine and the Moscow NIUI (Scientific Research
Coal Institute) established that main-passage props in Moscow basin mines be-
come unfit for service, in 60 percent of all cases, because of rotting. The
ordinary wooden prop goes out of commission in 3-5 years when supporting stable
rock, in 2-3 years when supporting medium stable rock, in one to 2 years when
supporting unstable rock, and in less than a year when supporting very unstable
rock. At the same time, main passages have a service period of 3-8 years for
about 44 percent of their entire extent and more than 8 years for about 41 percent.
Every year, it is necessary to install new props in about 33 percent of the
main haulage passages and in 22 percent of main ventilation passages. This re-
sults in a great outlay of labor, funds, and mine timbers. The consumption of
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4
mine timbers in repropping one linear meter is from o.48-1-34 cubic
when the rock to be supported is particularly soft, up to 2.38 cubic meters.
Up to 120,000 cubic meters of new mine timbers are used every year to reprop
main passages in mines of the Moskvougol' Combine.
To cut down on expenditure of labor, money, and mine timbers, new types of
props were designed of impregnated timber, metal, and reinforced concrete. In
these new props, the tie beams were made of wood, and these had to be replaced
periodically. Exreriments in the use of reinforced concrete for the tie beams
proved successful, and the production of reinforced-concrete :de beams was or-
ganized at the c6000 reinforcedconcrete tie obeoams Combine.
of 1952, nearly s0,,00
into use in mines of the Moskvougol' Combine, where they contributed toward the
propping of more than 2,000 meters of mine workings.(8)
SOURCES
1. Moscow, Moskovskaya Pravda, 25 Feb 53
2. Moscow, Pravda, 27 Apr 53
3. Tbilisi, Zarya Vostoka, 1 May 5S
4. Ashkhabad, Turkmenskaya Iskra, 25 Apr 53
5. Moskovskaya Pravda, 10 May 53
6. Moscow, master Uglya, No 1, 53
7. Moscow, Ugol', No 5, 53
8. Ibid., No 4, 53
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/08: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700130182-4