In the Kolubara mines, the overburden production plan has been exceeded by approximately 21 percent and the coal production plan by almost 6 percent since the beginning of the year. The annual overburden production plan for the year 2014 is around four million cubic meters bigger than the previous year’s. MB Kolubara produces more than 50% of Serbian lignite which is delivered to power plants of Serbia producing 70% of Serbian electricity.
Since the beginning of the year, in the four active open pit mines of the Mining Basin „Kolubara”, an average of 212,000 cubic meters of overburden and 91 thousand tons of coal have been produced every day. This means that the total balance is greater than the quantities envisaged for this period according to the plan, by around 21 percent when it comes to overburden and by almost six percent when it comes to lignite.
Up to and including the first week of March, the total coal production in „Kolubara” amounted to around 6.2 million tons, whereas circa 5.9 million tons had been envisaged according to the plan, and the total production of overburden amounted to 14.2 million cubic meters, whereas circa 11.6 million cubic meters had been envisaged.
According to the data, „Kolubara” has managed to maintain the trend of achieving good production results, which led to the excavation of more than 30.7 million tons of coal in the four open pit mines last year, which is the second best production result ever recorded in the history of „Kolubara”. It is also interesting that on 8th February, the 26-year-old record was broken in the Kolubara mines –116,456 tons of lignite were excavated within 24 hours. On this occasion, the highest daily production achieved back in 1988 was exceeded by a little more than 1,200 tons.
Milivoje Nikolić, Assistant Manager for Production and Technical Affairs in MB „Kolubara”, emphasizes that the production in the Kolubara mines within the previous period was higher than the planned. This is the result of the extreme effort and strong commitment of the employees, the timely organization of work and favourable weather conditions during the winter period.
– This year, we have set ourselves a very ambitious plan, particularly when it comes to overburden production, which should be by circa four million higher this year than in 2013. The plans were exceeded both in January and in February, and we expect this schedule to continue in the following months, too – Nikolić says.
Furthermore, the open pit mine „Tamnava–West Field ” achieved the best results in „Kolubara” within the previous year, with around 14.6 million tons excavated in total, which represents approximately 48 percent of the total annual production of all Kolubara mines. Since 1st January, more than three million tons of coal have been produced in this mine only, which is around six percent more than it had been envisaged. Within the same period, the Field „D” has exceeded the planned balance by more than 15 percent, achieving the production of circa 1.9 million tons.
– With respect to the results which have marked the past few months, we are particularly satisfied with the operation of the „Field B”, which has achieved the biggest progress. Although the production in this mine had been significantly below the plan for years, since 1st January, over 545,000 tons of coal have been excavated in this coal mine, which represents 93 percent of the planned quantity and over 2.4 million cubic meters of overburden, which is almost 17 percent more than the planned. All this is the result of our new good organization of work – Nikolić says. – We expect the Field „B” to achieve even better production results after the ongoing relocation of the cemetery in Baroševac has been finished. I do not expect any major difficulties in the achievement of this year’s anticipated balance.
Two Overhauls Underway
Nikolić also remarks that it is important that the procurement of spare parts and materials be carried out at the desirable pace.
– The Government of the Republic of Serbia has adopted the Annual Business Plan of the „Electric Power Industry of Serbia” for this year, which means that the procurement of goods and services for the year 2014 will begin very soon. For the time being, the overhauls of two overburden systems are underway, for which we have all necessary equipment, but it is important that the activities concerning the procurements be arranged by mid-April, when the coal producing systems „enter“ the investment overhaul. We expect that everything will be carried out without major delays and that we will manage to achieve the most important objective, and that is, to make every year better than the previous one when it comes to production in „Kolubara“ – Nikolić says.
Source; Serbia Energy
