There are more than 300 mineral deposits on the territory of Chelyabinsk region. 17.5 thousand people are employed in mining, many mining enterprises are city-forming for municipal units of Chelyabinsk region, mainly for miners’ towns and townships (Kopeysk, Korkino).
Mining operations in Chelyabinsk region are subdivided into two major types.
1. Mining of combustible mineral deposits.
In Chelyabinsk region that type is mainly represented by the production of brown coal which is used in power industry and housing and communal services of the region.
Commercial production in the Chelyabinsk coal-fields started in the beginning of the XX century; excavation is done by open-cut method (in Korkino coal cut), as well as by subterranean one (coal mines in Kopeysk, Korkino).
The further development of mining industry is connected with its restructuring. The cause of that is that the major and best quality coal deposits of the Chelyabinsk coal-fields have been worked-out and the remaining reserves are limited. For the aim of further development of mining industry in Chelyabinsk region as a result of restructuring there has been created OJSC “Chelyabinskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya” (Chelyabinsk Coal Company) that has been successfully operating since 2003 and is now the major enterprise of coal-mining industry. The biggest consumer of Chelyabinsk coal is still the Yuzhnouralsk State Power Station that uses 75% of marketable coal mined by the Chelyabinskaya Ugolnaya Kompaniya.
2. Mining of mineral deposits besides combustible ones.
The most important kinds of minerals mined on the territory of Chelyabinsk region are iron ore, copper concentrate, gold, nonmetallic building materials.
The biggest mining enterprises of Chelyabinsk region are CJSC “Yuzhuralzoloto” (Plast district), OJSC “Aleksandrinskaya Gornorudnaya Kompaniya” (Nagaybak district), OJSC “Vishnevogorskiy GOK” (Kasli district), CJSC “Koyelgamramor” (Yetkul district), OJSC “Bakalskoye Rudoupravlyeniye” (Satka district).
For the aim of further development of mining industry, the Government of Chelyabinsk region has adopted “The concept of further development of gold-mining industry”, realization of which will allow to mine gold in Chelyabinsk region with an utmost efficiency. Regular competitions are organized to develop fields of generally found mineral deposits, including nonmetallic building materials, so as to boost their mining on the territory of the region.
Chelyabinsk region is open for cooperation with foreign investors in the mining industry. In 2005 we have started realizing the project of the British company Eureka Mining of development of Mikheyevskoye deposit of porphyry copper ores, and in the perspective we are planning to build mining-and-processing integrated works on the territory of Chelyabinsk region in close proximity to the deposit.