The flagship of the world coal and energy industry, the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), turned 20! By human standards, the period is short, but the company has tremendous success. SUEK unites 27 open-pit mines and mines, 10 processing plants and plants, 5 ports, 27 power plants in 14 regions of Russia. In just 20 years, the giant has produced 1.79 billion tons of coal. One of the main assets of the company are people, 74 thousand employees, whose hard work has built a strong, competitive company.
Veterans and old-timers remember well the state of the coal enterprises that became part of SUEK in 2001: these were mainly crumbling mines, 90% worn out equipment, tax and wage arrears and, as a result, miners’ strikes. In April 2001, businessmen Andrey Melnichenko and Sergey Popov decided to collect separate assets and, through investment and restructuring, create the Siberian Coal Energy Company, which will become the largest player in the coal market. At the first stage, enterprises in Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory (at that time in the Chita Region) were united under a single management, at the second stage – enterprises in Sakhalin and in the Irkutsk Region. In 2002, enterprises in Khakassia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory became part of SUEK, a year later the company expanded its geography even more, began working in the Kemerovo Region, in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories. Debts in taxes – 14 billion rubles and wages – more than 400 million rubles were paid off. Over 70 million tons of coal have already been mined per year.
The mining base was formed along with technical re-equipment. The enterprises were equipped with the most modern and high-performance technology. As a result, productivity increased by 1.5 times.
The company took one height after another. In 2004, on the basis of SUEK, coal and a number of energy companies in Siberia were merged. And soon the company entered the international market and became the largest coal exporter in Russia. In 2008, in the Khabarovsk Territory, the company built from scratch a new Vanino bulk terminal intended for transshipment of coal to consumers in China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, as well as the Daltransugol railway terminal.
The company combined the growth of coal production in the regions with serious concern for environmental safety. So, at the mine SUEK named after S.M. Kirov in Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Kemerovo Region, in 2008, a coal mine methane power plant was launched. The project was implemented within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, which provides for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Along with the introduction of innovative, environmental, resource-saving technologies, the company pays great attention to improving the safety of miners. It was at SUEK that an intellectual dispatch center was the first in Russia to operate, which controlled the work of all enterprises and tracked the location of miners underground and their well-being. The sensors on the miners’ helmets installed in the lamps allow measuring the gas situation around each miner and transmitting this information to the dispatcher’s console. With the help of the domestic development, the GRUNCH wireless communication, search and notification system, it is possible not only to send a voice command to the miner, notifying him of the danger, but also to receive confirmation that the signal is not only received, but also recognized.
New victories came with technical re-equipment. In the list of the ten most productive mines in the country, at least 8 positions were invariably occupied by SUEK enterprises. The company also distinguished itself internationally. At the first Shenhua Corporation Cup Professional Coal Mining Competition, the team of the Siberian Coal Energy Company became the best foreign team.
Continuous development is the basis for SUEK’s success. In 2011 the company became a shareholder of the Murmansk Commercial Sea Port. They began to expand and build new mining and processing facilities in the Khabarovsk Territory, Kuzbass, Khakassia. For four years, from 2012 to 2015, the company invested almost $ 1 billion to purchase modern technology. And the records were not long in coming.
In 2012, at the Taldinskaya-Zapadnaya 1 mine, a new Russian record was set for monthly production from one working face – 827 thousand tons. A year later, the miners have renewed the record, having produced more than 1 million tons of coal! The Tugnuisky section, which is located in the Trans-Baikal Territory and in the Mukhorshibirsky District of Buryatia, also distinguished itself. It has set two world records for overburden loading and well drilling equipment. In total, to date, SUEK miners have updated more than 80 world and Russian labor productivity records.
The history of SUEK is the history of honest and professional work of tens of thousands of company employees. On May 1, 2013, all eyes were fixed on the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg, where the president for the first time presented the Hero of Labor gold medals to five Russians. Among the awardees was Vladimir Melnik, the operator of mining machines at the Kotinskaya mine in the Kemerovo Region.
In April 2018, there was a golden double. Vladimir Putin presented the Gold Medal of the Hero of Labor in the Kremlin to Alexander Kulichenko, an underground tunneller of the Taldinskaya-Zapadnaya 2 mine, SUEK. On the account of his brigade, there were also several coal records. In the family of Alexander Kulichenko – grandfather, father, brother, son, nephews – all miners.
Another good tradition is the holding of mining Olympiads. In 2017, for example, 400 best mining specialists from Kuzbass to the Far East took part in a large-scale all-Russian event initiated by SUEK. The winners received valuable prizes and cash prizes, but at the same time admitted that the main motivation was to defend the honor of the profession.
The pandemic has become a serious test for everyone. The coronavirus has had a negative impact on the economy all over the world, SUEK proudly says that the company has steadily passed 2020. During the pandemic, the company provided comprehensive support to hospitals and doctors in the territories of its presence and residents of the regions. SUEK employees, as volunteers, helped doctors, retirees, families in need, transported doctors to patients’ homes.
In 11 regions of presence, the company annually implements more than 200 various social and charitable projects in the field of demography, education, medicine, sports, patriotic education of youth. And looks confidently to the future. Ahead is the expansion of supplies to the premium markets of the Asia-Pacific region, an increase in enrichment capacities and a program to modernize power plants, which will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons per year. The main result of this large-scale work is a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the regions of presence and a noticeable improvement in the quality of life of citizens living in them.
Newspaper headline:
Lava for lava, glory for glory
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