More than 100 years ago, the legend of Russian geologists Obukhov discovered near the Zverevo station an exit to the surface of the earth of a powerful and unique coal seam - K2. And at the end of December 1978, the Obukhovskaya mine, recognized as the largest in Eastern Europe, was built and commissioned on this site.
Characteristics
OJSC Obukhovskaya Mine Administration is located in the East Donbass, in the Rostov Region, not far from the village of Zverevo. The regional center - the city of Rostov-on-Don - is located south of it at a distance of 110 km.
The mine has its own enrichment plant designed for a capacity of 3 million tons of anthracite coal per year with an enrichment depth of 0.5 mm. The mine field in the Obukhovskaya area extends for 14 km and goes 7.5 km in depth. In this area there are 2 working coal seams. Now only the top is being developed - the city.
In addition to the existing mine, the construction of a new mine, Obukhovskaya 1, began in 1994. Its design capacity was to be up to 2 million tons of coal per year. At the beginning of the zero years, the mine was mothballed. Work resumed in 2014. In 2017, the first anthracite was mined on it.
According to its characteristics, Obukhov coal is very high quality and is represented by pure anthracite. Its main indicators include: ash content - 4-5 percent; low sulfur content - less than 1%. Coal reserves in the developed layer amount to more than 900 million tons.
The beginning of the story
The Obukhovskaya mine dates back to 1959, when the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU developed and adopted a plan for the development of the USSR economy for ten years. According to the planned measures, the serious development of the Zverevsky and Gukovsky coal regions of the East Donbass was envisaged. At the same time, a decision was made to build a mine called Obukhovskaya-Zapadnaya.
Data on large deposits in these areas of high-quality coal were obtained at the beginning of the 20th century. Roughly in 1905, the leadership of the Donskoy Army instructed the Englishman I. Strum to conduct reconnaissance of the region in order to establish the possibility of building a cost-effective coal mine. On the instructions of this British citizen, the prospecting officer Obukhov (no other information was available about him), carried out an exploration of a promising coal area. They discovered a unique deposit of high-quality anthracite in the territory where Obukhovskaya now stands.
Great construction
The construction of the mine began with the 25th CPSU Congress in February 1976. He designated it the most important construction of the five-year plan. And the Central Committee of the Komsomol declared an all-Union strike construction.
For the construction of the Obukhovskaya mine, a large number of specialists and workers, mainly young people, arrived from all regions of the USSR. At the same time, the construction of a working village began. Now it is a city of regional significance Zverevo.
The Obukhovskaya mine reached its design capacity of three million tons of coal per year in 1984. Until the mid-nineties of the 20th century, it was one of the best mining enterprises in the Soviet Union. Stable mining of anthracite ranged from two million tons per year and above.
Hard times
The collapse of the Soviet Union did not pass the Obukhovskaya mine. By 1996, the production of anthracite decreased several times. A kind of anti-record was set in 1999, when only three hundred thousand tons of coal were delivered to the mountain, which is 10 times less than was laid down in its design capacity.
A gradual economic recovery begins at the beginning of the 2000s. Then the mine turns into an open joint-stock company (OJSC) and becomes the property of Russian Coal.
In total, during its existence, the Obukhovskaya mine changed its name several times. In the period from 1978 to 1991, it was named in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Lenin Komsomol. To 2002 - JSC Obukhovskaya. From 2003 to the present, OJSC “Obukhovskaya Mine Management Office”.
Ukrainian owner
Since 2012, the mine became the property of the Ukrainian structure - the Donetsk Fuel and Energy Company (DTEK). Its owner is a citizen of Ukraine, one of the richest people in this country - Renat Akhmetov.
The Ukrainians who bought the Obukhovskaya mine from the Russian Coal company were primarily interested in the fact that the mined coal meets the highest European environmental standards. More than half of Obukhov’s anthracite was exported.
Together with the mine, Akhmetov acquired the Obukhovskaya mining and processing plant, Donskoy Antratsit OJSC (Dalnaya mine), and also more than half of the shares of Sulinanthracit LLC (mine No. 410). Associated transport and energy enterprises were also attached to these structures.
According to the announced plans, the Ukrainian DTEK intended from the moment of purchase and over the next five years to invest about 250 million US dollars in the development of purchased coal structures in the Russian Federation. To bring the level of anthracite production to two or more million tons per year.
Miners working at the Obukhovskaya mine in the Rostov Region, with the advent of the new Ukrainian owner, noted the presence of changes for the better. So, wages began to be paid on time. The level of discipline has grown. For unauthorized breaks, drinking, absenteeism followed immediately by sanctions, up to dismissal. Before the financial crisis of 2014, as well as political problems in Ukraine, a lot of old equipment was replaced with more modern equipment. In 2015, two new lavas were put into operation at the Obukhovskaya mine. However, due to tense relations between Russia and Ukraine, coal production again fell by almost 10%.
Modernity
Some time ago, independent sources reported that the Ukrainian billionaire and oligarch Akhmetov was exploring the possibility of selling his mines in the Rostov Region (Obukhovskaya and Dalnaya).
The Ukrainian side explained its intentions by the fact that it unexpectedly faced high inflation, an increase in the cost of equipment and supplies, an increase in railway tariffs from the Russian Railways, as well as significant costs for electricity production. All this led to high financial losses, which DTEK is not able to compensate.
At the same time, analysts note that recently the revenue of the Obukhovskaya mine in the Rostov region has seriously increased. Last year, Akhmetov received almost half a billion rubles of net profit from Russian assets. Thus, the supply of anthracite coal to Ukraine in the first half of 2017 increased by almost 10 times. In 2018, it was supposed to bring these shipments to 1.2 million tons per year, which is a very large volume for the country.
In order to prevent possible claims from Russia, Akhmetov secured himself with the fact that the profits from the working mines of DTEK Obukhovskaya and Dalnaya go to repay and service debt to Sberbank of the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian company owes almost half a billion rubles to this banking structure.