Sovrudnik Mining Company, Severo-Eniseyskiy, Russia:

D. A. Ponomarev, Deputy Chief Executive Officer on Economics

IPKON, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia:
I. L. Nikiforova, Researcher, nikiforova495@mail.ru

The article focuses on the innovation activities of one of Russia’s biggest gold producers—Sovrudnik Mining Company. The company specialty is gold mining by open pit method in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and gold extraction with the final product in the form of gold bars. Since 1999 when the first gold ore mining license was obtained, the company has been enjoying sustainable development at the annual increase in the gold production. At the present time, Sovrudnik belongs to UGC Gold Mining Company. The key production unit of the company is Eldorado open pit mine located 64 km off Severo-Eniseysky neighborhood center. The annular capacity of the open pit mine is 8 Mm³ of mined rock. Ore processing units dealing with concentration and extraction of gold are Sovetskaya gold extraction factory in the Severo-Eniseysky neighborhood center and Eldorado Mining and Processing Works that produces gold using the heap leaching technology. The sustainable growth in the production capacity of the company is ensured by the substantial efforts aimed at replenishment and expansion of the mineral and raw materials supply base and owing to persistent search for geotechnologies providing full-scale mechanization and high efficiency of stoping. The top-priority issues are the efficiency of subsoil use, minimization of gold loss in mining and processing, industrial and ecological safety of mining, creation of comfortable working conditions and improvement of the human environment within the mine-technical system and its influence zone. Performance of Sovrudnik is a shining example of successful handling of the ecological and social problems in the framework of the concept of the environmentally sound subsoil development.
The study has been supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 14-37-00050-P.

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