March 21, 2017 - Mechel PAO, one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, has reported the launch of new mining equipment at Yakutugol Holding Company AO’s Neryungrinsky Open Pit. Investment into acquisition of two open-pit excavators totaled 1.2 billion rubles.

The company began exploiting a heavy-duty EKG-18 open-pit excavator with a 18-cubic-meter bucket capacity, with another one due to be launched into service in late April. Machines produced by Urals Machine-Building Plant will be used for overburden mining at the open pit on the round-the-clock basis. Excavators of this type are designed for work in difficult mining, geological and climatic conditions and have proved to be very effective in mining heavy-textured rocky soil.

For better control over all work-related parameters, the excavators are equipped with information management and microprocessor-based control systems, as well as fault detection systems and automatic protection of mechanisms and joints.

Neryungrinsky Open Pit’s technical upgrade program provides for buying two more excavators with a 10-cubic-meter bucket capacity this year.

“Our cooperation with Urals Machine-Building Plant serves as confirmation of the efficiency of Russia’s import substitution program. The experience we have had with EKG excavators at our coal open pits in Yakutia and Kuzbass proves that the new machines are reliable, highly productive and comfortable for their crew. Also, by buying Russian-produced equipment, we save not only on cost, but also on the delivery time for the equipment and its spare parts,” Mechel PAO’s Chief Executive Officer Oleg Korzhov noted.

Mechel is an international mining and steel company. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value-added products.