ECONOMIC - COAL MINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600210955-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2011
• Sequence Number: 955
• Publication Date: April 8, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/24: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600210955-9
COUNTRY ussR
SUBJECT Economic - Coal mining
HOW
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WHERE
Y y/Jw 1948
LANGUAGE
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SOURCE
the end of the First rive-Tear Plan, the output had been doubled. urge-soale
of these new mines is the Yolchanskiy field in the Sverdlovsk region, In addi-
terranean wining. Open mining constituted 1,9 percent of USSR mining in 1937;
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
REPOR
CD NO..
DATE OF
INFORMATION 191+8
DATE DIST. g Apr 1949
LT
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At
Productivity of labor in open mining is 2.5 to 0 3 times as great as that in
shaft mining.
Cost of open coal mining is about one third that of shaft mining. In the
eastern regions it was 35.7 percent cheaper than shaft mining in 1947.
Current cost ofc.,nstruction of open pits, is lower than the cost of shaft
construction by the factors indicated: Urals, 2.5; Karaganda, 1.4; Cheremkhovo,
1.5.
A number of coal pits with an output of 300,000-600,000 tons annually were
constructed during World War II. Construction time for these pits averaged one
year. An ordinary shaft with this output requires 2-3, and sometimes more years
to build.
Excavation equipment in operation in 1945 was 2.3 times that operating in
1940. The total capacity of bucket excavators was five times as great. By the
end of the war, 3.2 times as many coal cars were operating in the pits as oper-
ated before World War II.
Productivity of labor is still low because of poor use of equipment and
transport. Organization of overhaul and maintenance of excavating equipment
is likewise unsatisfactory. Because of such deficiencies, the coal output from
strip mines of the eastern regions during the first half of 1948 vas 6 percent
below plan. The 1947 plan was also not fulfilled.
The largest coal fields in the USSR suitable for open mining are in the
eastern regions. These Include the :olchanskiy and Bogoslovsk fields on the
eastern slope, of the Urals, the Korkino field in the Chelyabinsk region; the
Babayevo, Mayeki, Voroshilov; Tyul'gan and others in Bashkir ASSR; the Cherem-.
khnvo, Irsha-Borodino, Nazarovo and others in Eastern Siberia; the Raychikhinsk
in the Par East USSR; the Angren in Central Asia, the Irtysh in. Kazakhstan and
others. Each of these fields has vast supplies of coal suitable for open min-
ing, the reserves estimated into billions of tons.
In addition. the USSR has smaller fields having several million tons snit
ably located for open mining. These include the Teniz, Korzhunkul'ek, the
Kyaktinsk and others iv Kazakhstan; the Lermontovka field on Sakhalin; and the
Lake Gasinoye field in Buryat-Mongol ASSR., Small open-pit operations should
be undertaken at a number of fields where conventional shaft mines are being
operated. Example, of this are the Krasnoprud, Novoeergiyevka and Prokop'yew
pits in the Efubass.
Open mining fields in European U?..SR include tre following the Fiayuekovek,
Semenovkm-Golovkovsk, Masher ino-Svotlopol'skip, Verbolozovski; and Zolotarevkn
fields to the western Ukraine; the Ebristofor and Veseln-Termovskiy fiels in the
reepropetrovek region; and the Yurkovka field in the Kiev region.
Most fields suitable for open mining, however, are either not yet in opera-
tion or are only now having pits constructed.
The only industrial-scale strip mininv now being carried on is in the Kor-
kino, Bogoslovek ant' Volchanskiy fields is the Urals; the l1aychikhinnk fields
in Khabarovsk Kray; and the Karagonjs and Chorcn&chovo fie:_3s in central Asia.
Construction of pits is underway at Ve clo in the Urals; Nazarovo and Irsha-
Borodino in eastern Siberia; I= the Kuzbane; and in Baydakovak, 3emenovka-Golov-
kovsk and Yurkov$m in the western pert of Ukrainian SSE.
Because of geological conditions acme coal fiel a can be opened for large-
scale open mining in a relatively short time. Included in this group are the
lignite fields in Bashkir ASSR, the Irtysh field in Kazakhstan, the Angren lig-
nite field in central Asia and the lignite fields in the western parts of Ukrain-
ian SSR.
C~N~i~At.
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Deposits in the Bashkir ASSR fields are estimated at several hundred million
tons. The postwar Five-Year Plan calls for broad development of open mining in
this region. The coal is important for the industry, power plants and transport
in the southern Urals region.
The Irtysh field is the largest field suitable for open mining. The large
its can be constructed there.
The Angren field in Uzbek SSR is made up of three strata. The width of the
bottom stratum is 40-50 meters. A pit is under construction there at present.
The output of this mine, when developed, will be greater than the present entire
output of central Asia. Central Asia, Tashkent and Tashkent's industrial area
will be supplied from this mine,
The Five-Year plan specifies the setting up of coal industry on the right
bank and western regions of .Ukrainian SSR. The opening of 13 shafts and pits
with a potential output of 9,700,000 tons annually is planned. This will make
possible a decrease in the amount of Donets coal shipped into western Ukrainian
SSR.
Further development of open coal mining will depend to a great extent on
the supplying of the mines with equipment. Anoag other thinge, the production
of high power excavators, electric loooootives, railroad cranes and drag lines
must be organized. The Diesel engine most be put into wide use in the rail
transport of the pits. The production of electrical equipment for the new ma-
ohimsry in very important.
Coal mines are suffering fx?cm lank of spare parts, especially for excava-
tars. Construction of the 1Ccrkino Loo omotive Bxoavator-Rail Car Repair Plant in
Chelyabinsk Coal Combine is nearing completion. This will help solve the problem
of equipment repair.
Aydreawohanization was first put into praotioe at the coal pits in 1943.
The amount of stripping work aotamplished by means of hydromeohanization was
470,000 cubic meters in 1943, 873,000 cubic meters in 1944, 1,393,000 cubic
meters in 1945, 1,800,000 cubic meters in 1946 and 2,750,000 cubic meters in
1947.
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