A unique vessel will be engaged in the development of the largest lead and zinc deposit in Russia

November 28, 2020 1

Russia will build the first floating mining and processing plant for the development of one of the country's largest deposits of lead and zinc ores. First of all, the location of the Pavlovskoye field in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean influenced the non-standard choice of the method of mining. But there is more.

The day before, a draft design project for a floating mining and processing plant was completed. Its planned capacity is 50 thousand tons of lead and 220 thousand tons of zinc concentrates per year. At the same time, floating enterprises are not new to Russia. We already have a floating nuclear power plant “Akademik Lomonosov”, two fish floating factories, and a plant “Arctic LNG-2” is under construction.

In addition, the creation of a floating mining and processing plant in Russia is also not to be done from scratch. A similar structure called "Sevmorolovo" was already used in the USSR in the 70s. However, unlike its predecessor, the new plant will be much larger, and the extraction of minerals will be conducted not from the seabed, but from the shore.

The question arises: why not build an enterprise directly on the archipelago? There are several reasons for this. First, after completion of production at the Pavlovskoye field, the mobile plant can be used elsewhere. Secondly, the floating enterprise will be built faster and at lower financial costs. Thirdly, with this approach, the Arctic ecosystem is exposed to minimal risks.

In general, the project has great chances of success, it can be scaled up in the future and even go beyond the borders of our state.

Our news channels

Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

VK Zen Telegram

Information

Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.

beeper

-1

28 November 2020 13: 45

Interesting news, even more interesting is the proposed concept itself - a "floating point of growth" of the Russian Sub-Polar region! I liked the short video for its clarity and brevity of the plot, vigorous energetic "soundtrack" and information content, which is quite sufficient for the general public!
Although, fluently sounded in the general "information series", the "funny" professional term "tailing dump" (that is, storage of "waste rock", "tailings" - waste of mineral processing ) is not clear to everyone ?!
By the way, it is the vast "tailing dumps" of GOKs, as well as dumps of "waste rock" from the quarry (in this case, with open pit mining) that are very costly (for the economy of mining enterprises in general) and a big problem for the environment in their places location!
It is clear that, after some time, the floating mining and processing plant will "do its job" and float away (to further develop the North), leaving behind quarries, waste heaps, tailing dumps and much more (equipped harbor, coastal buildings and structures, developed industrial and civil infrastructure, a military town, underground shelters, positions of RV and electronic warfare, command post and ZKP, meteorological station and airfield, ...) ...
But, to be honest (as someone who is partly guided by the specifics of the topic, who has seen such "quarry-mine landscapes" more than once, and is not bad at presenting this, speculative, future "grandiose oil painting" on the circumpolar terrain, the Arctic tundra of the northern archipelago), I have a poor idea of the promised "reclamation (restoration)" of this part of the territory of Novaya Zemlya, involved in the extraction of PI, with backfilling (or flooding) of the quarry (quarries) and the liquidation of huge coastal "tailing dumps", to the brim filled with water slurry of finely dispersed "tails", frozen out at low temperatures and with the surface of this "reservoir" open to all hurricane winds being carried away (for many years covering snow and plants, nesting sites of Novaya Zemlya birds with multi-layered dust), for many kilometers around ?!
The functional stability of the floating mining and processing complex from the effects of the famous "Novaya Zemlya bora" and the prevailing strong winds is also incomprehensible ?!
I hope that all these technical and environmental issues will be successfully resolved and strategically important raw materials extracted in such a precious way will be industrially processed into "products" within the Russian Federation itself and, ultimately, will be used to strengthen the Russian economy and defense, to create new jobs , for the good and the growth of the standard of living of the entire Russian population, and not mediocrely turned into another cheap commodity-comprador "raw material tribute" for the industry and strengthening the welfare of the malicious "partners" ?!