Natalya Shuganova

T

he mining & metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel and, especially, enterprises of its main Zapolyarny subdivision in Norilsk maintain long-standing contacts with foreign firms that supply equipment. For several decades Finnish, Swedish and American companies have been partners of this one of the world’s largest producers of nonferrous metals and platinoids.
The company is now in the process of integration in the world economy and it has set a strategic task to become a leader of the metallurgical business. As Mikhail Prokhorov, the general director of Norilsk Nickel, says, "one of the key directions to implement this strategy is the development of the ore mining base". A concept of the company’s production and engineering development as well as modernization of the Norilsk Nickel enterprises has been worked out covering the period up to 2015. Under this concept the production process should reach the world engineering and technological level while becoming pollution-free.
Today, the company is introducing up-to-date technologies of ore mining. "Equipping our enterprises with the most advanced machinery is the basis of stable operation and successful development", points out Vitaly Bobrov, the director of the Zapolyarny subdivision of Norilsk Nickel, as he describes the purpose of making investments in purchasing equipment for mining enterprises.

Tamrock HHM TORO-007, 10 ton carrying capacity

The program of acquiring underground machinery and special equipment is to run from 2003 to 2007. This current year $33M have been allocated for these purposes. The largest suppliers are Atlas Copko, Tamrock, Normet, Elphinstone, Kawasaki and other companies. Under the long-term contracts 78 units of underground self-propelled diesel machinery have been bought from them.
Finland’s Tamrock has supplied 6 material handling and hauling machines (HHM) and the same number of drilling installations. Four HHMs have been bought from Australian Elphinstone. Swedish Atlas Copko is about to ship to Norilsk 11 HHMs, 10 drilling installations and 1 dump truck with the carrying capacity of 35 tons for underground work.
These machines and mechanisms have already been given high marks by specialists from the Zapolyarny subdivision of Norilsk Nickel. In their opinion, new modifications of the Tamrock and Atlas Copko drilling equipment can be called equipment of the future. They note that some types of machines are equipped with engines of the new generation. In particular, 6 machines have more powerful Detroit diesel engines, which provide their own computed testing and adjustment.
The Norilsk mines are rather deep. Underground excavation works are strongly affected by geodynamic tensions. That is why machines, especially for ore mining, should be powerful, reliable and highly productive. They are purchased strictly to orders of the Norilsk Nickel mining enterprises. As the company’s specialists say, the Tamrock drilling equipment has been ordered by the Taymyrsky mine, the underground dump truck has been purchased for the Angidrit mine of the Norilsk-1 ore administration. The Atlas Copko underground machines are distributed among all mines. And it is not a casual practice.
At the beginning of the 1970s the complex started buying equipment from Atlas Copko. As years went by, this company’s equipment was becoming predominant at the mining enterprises of Norilsk Nickel. In 1999 leaders of Norilsk Nickel decided to purchase similar units from other producers and conduct testing in the polar conditions so as to choose the best. The equipment of Atlas Copko turned out to be the most attractive and the company again proved its reliability. The equipment of Tamrock and Elphinstone also deserved good marks because it met operational requirements and was quite satisfactory with respect to the price/quality ratio. It is worth noting that as far as this ratio is concerned, the company Tamrock was particularly successful: first, Norilsk Nickel bought for its mining enterprises three handling and hauling machines and, later, it acquired six more. Today, this firm ships to Norilsk both drilling equipment and dump trucks.
Finnish Normet supplied 38 units of auxiliary mining machinery for hauling cargo, explosives and combustive-lubricating materials as well as roof-mounting machines and underground bus for transportation of personnel: it is needed because at the Oktyabrsky mine, for example, underground works cover 600 km. Normet also provides equipment to mechanize handwork by using charging, crushing and many other machines.
The management of Norilsk Nickel pays the ever growing attention to servicing and quality of repairing equipment. It tries to bring the repair complex as close as possible to sites of operating sophisticated machinery and raise the level of operation and maintenance works to European standards. Atlas Copko, Tamrock and Elphinstone have already opened their service centers in Norilsk. Their personnel consists of the best mechanics from the mining enterprises of Norilsk Nickel.
The first results have proven the effectiveness of this direction. According to the data of the company’s specialists, while volumes of mining do not decrease, in the last 4 years the number of machines being in operation has been reduced by 30 units. Expenses on operation, repairs, spare parts and diesel fuel have been cut down significantly.
Since 1999 Norilsk Nickel has bought over 300 units of mining equipment for the total amount of $92.5 million. In the current year the purchase of 78 units of underground diesel equipment has been one of the largest not only at Norilsk Nickel but in Russia’s mining industry as a whole.