History
of Kuzbassrazrezugol-Vzryvprom

In 2022, we celebrated the 20th anniversary. For two decades, the company has achieved both reliable stability and a truly revolutionary change in its operations.

We have grown from a local blasting operations provider to the largest producer of commercial blasts in the region.

Our leading position is based on:

This leads to growth of stripping operations and increase in volumes of blasted rock mass. Improving the efficiency of blasting operations becomes particularly relevant as it directly affects the cost of coal production.

Explosives were supplied by the Znamya Plant and the Biysky Oleum Plant. The purchase of explosives was 1.5−2 times more expensive than the use of basic in-house explosives. The share of mechanized charging did not exceed 40%, which meant additional personnel, storages and storage costs.

The KRU management decided to optimize blasting operations by creating a separate enterprise that would conduct blasting operations and provide delivery of explosives to open-pit mines.

Each of the 12 open-pit mines had their own storages, shotfirers and special vehicles for transportation of explosive materials. Each enterprise was a separate legal entity and each one independently supplied their own blasting operations and arranged maintenance of the equipment.

Igor Saprykin was appointed the first CEO. Evgeny Mordovin became the Deputy CEO for Finance and Explosives Supply.

The first blast was conducted in September 2002. The Karakansky open-pit mine was chosen as an experimental site. The experiment was successful and a blasting schedule was developed for the other 12 open-pit mines.

The idea was revolutionary because no one provided blasting services. The decision to establish KRU-Vzryvprom was made in June 2002. The initiator was Evgeny Mordovin, Head of the Department for Restructuring and Property Management at Kuzbassrazrezugol.

The idea was supported by Sergo-Shakhzada Kurbanov, First Vice-President at Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company who headed the Board of Directors of KRU-Vzryvprom.

The most important decisions on the increase of production were made by Sergey Grishin, who headed the company from 2004 to 2015. Sent to the Kedrovsky open-pit mine by the Kuzbass Polytechnical Institute in 1989, Sergey Grishin worked his way up from an Engineer to Deputy Technical Director for Drilling & Blasting Operations.

So the company’s management offered suppliers to take loans from banks and lease machines secured against supplies. A program to increase production and long-term contracts for the supply of explosives were developed for each enterprise. The price calculated on the basis of the cost and 5% profitability was fixed for 2003.

But the income of explosives suppliers increased due to the increase of supplies for KRU-Vzryvprom and optimization of special transport management. Initially, 53 vehicles transported explosives. In 2003, the number was reduced to 16. The next step for increasing the efficiency was to reduce the number of explosive storages.

From 2003 to 2007, productivity has doubled. Mechanized charging of boreholes reached 99%. Costs in the first years decreased by 500 million rubles per year. The cost of production decreased from 15% to 8%, resulting in savings of up to 2 billion rubles per year.

amounted the volume of the blasted rock mass in 2006−2007, meaning growth of more than 1.5 times compared to 2002.

300, 000 000 м³ a year

Shofirers at the open-pit mines did not accept the innovation as they used to work at their own sites. Igor Saprykin, who was the General Director of Karakansky open-pit mine before joining KRU-Vzryvprom, played an important role in the formation, building and motivation of the team. He showed by his example not to be afraid of change so people moved to the service company to conduct blasting operations.

For this purpose, the suppliers of explosives Kuznetskvzryvprom, Krasnobrodpromvzryv and KRU-Sibirit had to increase production by 2−3 times, which meant huge investments in equipment, mobile explosive manufacturing units and complete reorganization of the production process. Kuzbassrazrezugol had no funds for such investments.

The first step towards the improvement of the efficiency of blasting operations was the launch of in-house manufacture of the Granulit NP explosive at the Kedrovsky open-pit mine. The second step was to increase mechanized charging, and the third step was to move to 100% use of the basic explosives.

Production of basic explosives increased to 250 thousand tons a year. KRU-Sibirit became the leader in terms of growth of production — from 12 to 150 thousand tons a year. The company became one of the largest explosives manufacturers in the world.

Krasnobrodpromvzryv also increased production from 9 to 60 thousand tons. Production output of Kuznetskvzryvprom increased from 5 to 30 thousand tons a year.

An increase in explosives manufacture triggered an increase in ammonium nitrate supplies. It was transported by rail in large volumes in the form of granules. Due to the lack of storages, railcars stayed unloaded for months.

The problem was solved by purchasing an ammonium nitrate solution directly from the Kemerovo-based Azot plant, thus eliminating the need for storages and granulation. Together with our partner Nitro Sibir, we developed innovative insulated trucks for transportation of ammonium nitrate, which were then used only in the USA and Australia.

Many years of experience of Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company and achievements of KRU-Vzryvprom allowed managers become members of the working group on the improvement of drilling and blasting operations established on the initiative of the Siberian Department of Rostechnadzor (the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service of Russia). Together with VostNII and research organizations, the working group started developing new methods and technologies of blasting operations that would be effective for the coal industry and safe for the environment and people.

In 2017, the Kedrovsky explosives manufacturing complex was commissioned. In 2018, an MMTL-500-P mobile process line for production of commercial emulsion explosive components was launched. The design capacity was 55 thousand tons a year.

of explosives — production output at the Kedrovsky complex in 2018

11,000 tons

Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company together with KRU-Vzryvprom developed specifications for a new RPGM commercial emulsion explosive.

On May 1, 2019, KRU-Sibirit became part of KRU-Vzryvprom, turning into the Bachatsky explosive manufacturing complex. A new process line for production of emulsion explosive components was launched at the complex. The line capacity was 175 thousand tons. KRU-Vzryvprom together with Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company developed technical specifications for new commercial explosives: Granulit MK and RPGM PS packaged emulsion explosives. In 2021, construction of the line for production of preventive agents began.

All innovative technologies were used in the benchmark blast: Firstly, the proprietary RPGM-100 emulsion explosive which ensures minimal gas emissions into the atmosphere. Secondly, initiation systems which minimize seismic effects. Thirdly, special devices and special designs of borehole charges.

In late 2021, in consultation with Polibond LLC, production of the ASP-K dust suppression agent was launched. The composition of this product made it possible to solve the problems of the freezing of coal in winter and dusting on haulage roads.

In June 2021, a benchmark blast at the Kedrovsky open-pit mine was conducted using the latest blasting technologies. This is how KRU-Vzryvprom celebrated the so-called "anniversary" - the five billionth cubic meter of the blasted rock mass since the beginning of blasting operations.

The vehicle fleet was also expanded: four non-explosive component delivery trucks and one industrial oil delivery truck were purchased. Construction of the ammonium nitrate storage site at the Krasnobrodsky open-pit mine began.

Since May 1, 2022, all drilling equipment owned by Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company and the personnel who operated it became part of KRU-Vzryvprom. This allowed to manage the quality of blasted rock mass starting from the moment of drilling.

Combining production stages opened new horizons and allowed the company to bring a "turnkey blast" as a full-cycle product to the competitive market.

The project started at the Bachatsky open-pit mine in 2021. The KRU-Vzryvprom team received eight drill rigs and in a short period of time increased the productivity of PV271 rigs by over 30+ kilometers per month, and up to 38 kilometers at peak performance.

In order to conduct blasting operations in rock and ores containing sulfides, check and pilot tests of newly developed RPGM-70S and RPGM-100S explosives were carried out.