Our business

Longwall mining. Under longwall mining the mine field is divided into large panels of certain length and width. The width of each panel determines the length of the longwall. As a rule, one longwall completely extracts coal from such panel. Operating time of the longwall ranges from one to several years. Longwall mining could imply manual, fully or semi-mechanized underground mining techniques. After completion of the mechanized mining from a particular longwall the mechanized longwall system is moved to a new mining area. The key characteristics of longwall mining are high productivity, relatively higher reserve recovery rates, safety and reliability.

Room and pillar. This method is used if due to certain reasons (small amount of coal reserves at particular site, complicated geological conditions, etc.) the use of longwall mining is not appropriate. The process of coal mining in chambers (rooms) can be either manual or semi-mechanized. When using either of the methods the logistics of movement of coal from sites of production to the surface is mainly determined by the transport plan and the selected scheme of reserves preparation of the panel. Transportation can be either by car (wheeled vehicles), or with the use of scraper or belt conveyors.

Coal Energy strives to increasing mechanization of coal extraction. Presently coal mining in longwalls is performed by the shearers, using individual roof supports and on steeply inclined seams by jackhammers. Preparation works on the mines are carried out by using tunneling machines and blasting method with a rock loading machines.

Coal Energy mines the following types of coal:

•  thermal coal grades, specifically anthracite coal (grade A), lean coal (grade T) and long flame gas coal (grade DG),

• coking coal grades, specifically coking fat coal (grade Zh),

•  gas coal (grade G) - a dual-purpose coal, that could be used by consumers either as thermal or coking coal.

Thermal coal dominates in the volume of Group’s coal mining and is used sold to by power generation plants in Eastern and Central Ukraine and in the neighboring countries, and to a lesser extent to the local metallurgical companies.

Coking coal is produced by the Group and is supplied to coking plants in the region for further coke production. Constant demand for coke is secured by the presence in the Donetsk region of the majority of the Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises for which this product is one of the key components in the production chain.

At the same time, in 2012, the Group constructed and launched the new waste processing plant Prepodobnih Antoniya and Feodosiya of Kievo-Pechersk (renamed Snezhnyanskay №2), with the annual waste dumps processing capacity of 1.4 million tonnes. It is planned that the plant will process three waste piles of the total volume 7.2 million tonnes of rock located in Snezhnoe.

Constructively the new plant is of a module type – hence after processing the existing dumps it could be disassembled and transported to the new industrial site.

The Group utilizes the strategy of selective processing of waste rock, which depends on the ash content of the coal-bearing rock:

•  a lot of waste rock after initial classification of coal bearing rock by size (screening) without any further processing is sold to customers (such product is called coal middlings) and/or,

•  if specific lot of waste rock requires further beneficiation after initial screening it is processed on the plant into coal concentrate and subsequently sold to consumers.

Waste processing plant Prepodobnih Antoniya and Feodosiya of Kievo-Pechersk applies unique combination of technological processes innovative for Ukraine like beneficiation in steeply inclined separator and in dense-medium cyclones. Steeply inclined separator allows separating quality product at initial stage hence minimizing losses of combustible matter, further factory load of 200 tonnes per hour, process facilitation during the following dense-medium separation and reduction of magnetite consumption. Successful combination of mechanisms during desliming provides more efficient waste dumps wash over, preparation of product for dense-medium separation. Consequent processing of waste in spiral separators allows to achieve the depth of beneficiation up to 0.15 mm. It is important to mention that the plant implies closed water-slime scheme, and respectively absence of any discharge of technical waters in the environment.

Moreover, the Group’s waste dumps processing business works in accordance with the Joint Implementation Project program arranged by Global Carbon B.V., aimed at reducing CO2 emissions that allows Coal Energy to sell Emission Reduction Units according to the procedure established by Kyoto Protocol.

The plant is primarily used for beneficiation of coking coal extracted at CwAL LE “Mine St. Matrona Moskovskaya” (renamed CwAL LE Novodzerzhynskaya Mine), Nedra Donbassa LLC and Tekhinnovatsiya LLC. The Group fully satisfies its own needs in beneficiation services. Additionally the plant beneficiates coal bought outside the Group and provides coal beneficiation services externally. In April 2012 the Group completed modernization of Postnikovskaya beneficiating plant that now allows to process both thermal and coking coal, and to switch to beneficiation of different coal grades without major production process interruption due to implementation of the gravity beneficiation technology.