Q. What is your earliest mining memory?
When I was still a student in the Mining Institute, before the final year, it was quite normal to send mining engineers who had almost graduated to work at the mine for a few months. I was attached to one of the longwall development crews. On their way to the face, it was quite usual for guys to pick up one section of the pan (a small chain conveyor) or a couple pieces of chain and carry this for couple hundred metres.
To earn crew respect, I was following their example, but after a few steps that bloody pan became so heavy that I simply fell to the pile of coal. Now I could see how it was important to understand that at the early stage of my carrier, at the end of the 80s, we had a lot of areas of mining practice where mechanisation should be introduced or improved. However, after a few weeks, for some reason those pans become much lighter!
Q. What made you choose mining as a career?
My father was a mine director and I was following his example. He was a good mining engineer and manager and was respected by the other miners in our mining village. I have to say, Kuzbass was a very prospective coal basin and still remains as the most developed mining region in Russia today.
In the 1980s and 90s the mining profession was very popular – it was guaranteed that earnings would be one of the highest compared to any other industry. Mining was also considered a man’s job, and opportunities for growth were tremendous. But at the same time it was very clear that life should be fully designated to the mine, at such a scale that there was practically no time available for family or anything else.
Q. When was your first underground visit?
I was 14 when my father took me underground for the first time. I remember that we went through the vertical shaft and somehow got in to the development face.
I was horrified with these bucket loaders, loading blasted rock into the small rail carriages. It was my first time in a limited space environment and it felt very dangerous at the time.
Q. What was your favourite coal mine job?
Under-manager at Raspadskaya mine. I was responsible for the development of two longwall panels at two different coal seams. This was probably the last job where I was very closely connected to the miners. I was managing four development teams, about 160 people covering 24 hours, seven days a week and over the three-year period I knew all of them extremely well. I think it is very important to know your people, who you deploy to do the job and who you could fully trust and rely on.
Q. What was your least favourite job?
I was once appointed to the position of chief engineer at a mining construction company. The company was a main contractor for a 9 million tonne capacity coal enrichment plant project. Soon after, I recognised that there were 25 smaller companies under my control, subcontracted for all sorts of jobs. I found this very complicated and almost impossible to manage at the level I wanted.
Q. Who, or what, has most influenced your mining career?
I was educated as a mining engineer to do mining capital constructions, including vertical shaft sinking using special methods, major roadways, drifts, inclines, driveage at the mine, so basically I was trained to do things properly. A professional mine constructor with experience is always a very good asset to the mine. At an early stage, I was lucky to work with the older generation of Russian and English mining engineers who had constructed many coal mines. I learned many things from them and they have influenced my mining career the most.
Q. What do you consider your best mining achievement?
To be a part of the group of people whose decisions have significantly advanced the Russian coal mining industry. I was closely involved in the introduction of the first 3.3kV shearer, 3.3kV AFC, first high voltage CM, VFD drives for CM, shuttle cars, feeder breakers, and RS20s.
Q. What do you see as being the greatest mining development during your career?
The significant change of mining culture and dynamic technical progress in every part of coal mining. Leading mining equipment designers like Joy Mining, Bucyrus, Sandvik and many others have been forced to continue technology development to the limit. Today an electrical engineer is the most valued mining profession. Levels of automation and sophistication are getting extremely high: most of the mining processes are controlled by computer.
Q. Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?
I have been through most of the manager’s positions relating to operating a coal mine. Now I’m engaged with a business which is directly related to the improvement of safety during longwall face equipment transfers. It is very common for Russian mines to handle face transfers within two to three months.
I want to change obsolete and time-consuming Russian technology to the Huesker recovery system, which is very successful in Australia and the US. So, currently my ambition is to reduce transfer time to two weeks. Some mines like Kotinskaya mine (SUEK mining group) are already achieving this.
Q. Do you think the day of the fully automated, remotely operated face is near?
Yes I do. Thanks to the equipment manufacturer’s efforts, high level longwall automaton is already available and used in many applications, such as shearer initiations for roof support advance, automation for face end operations, and memory cut.
Fully automated, low-seam longwall faces with remotely operating visual control at the shearer are already being tested in China and the USA. This will be driven more and more by good quality coal reserves with very low (below 1.4m) coal seam conditions. I think this will be a very effective way to mine.
Published in the September 2011 Australian Longwall Magazine
