Workers of Magnetitovaya mine located at Vysokogorskiy Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (VGOK, part of Evraz Group) started extracting ore at the level of 850 meters below the ground. This is the deepest level ever achieved at any of the company’s three mines.

The spokesperson for Evraz Group reports the preparation for this record-setting procedure took several years. First, the operational exploration and drilling jobs had to be done; then, geological sections and 4,000 meters of roadway were completed. The miners put up a water-removing system for subsurface water that includes three pumps that take the water up on the surface. The geoscientists drew up the plans and identified the shape and location of the several-hundred-meter ore body. The explored reserve has been estimated to come to 4 million tons of iron ore; this will take about a decade to develop.

Magnetitovaya mine was launched in 1946, yet is has been upgraded on a regular basis ever since; it is now part of the enterprise’s development program. Eight repair cycles have been scheduled for 2008 alone. There are currently some 700 workers operating at the mine, most of them have been employed there for over twenty years. The workers operate at three levels (530, 450, and 370 meters below). The latest and deepest level is going to become the mine’s tenth level so far and is expected to raise the total ore output by 100,000 tons a year.