OJSC Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant. $1.5 billion scam. Who tried to steal Mikhailovsky GOK Director of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC

In the smoky kitchen of a squalid Moscow apartment, tension was growing - two brothers started a drunken quarrel over a trifle. Finding no arguments, one poked the other with a knife that came to hand. The ambulance doctors were powerless.

There were no difficulties for the investigators in this case, and a couple of months later the fratricide went to the colony. And four months later, the Moscow drunk Sergei Senkin, stabbed to death and quietly buried, “sold” the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant (GOK), one of the largest Russian enterprises worth more than one and a half billion dollars, to a Bahamian offshore company. The “deal” took place in November 2004. According to the documents, Senkin was listed as the general director of Shimlen LLC, which acted as the seller of the mining and processing plant.

How could this happen? One day Senkin lost his passport - at least that’s what his wife later told investigators. Soon, using this passport, someone registered a company that was destined to play a key role in one of the most notorious corporate scandals in Russia. Several entrepreneurs from the Forbes Golden Hundred were its active participants. Billions of dollars in transactions in this story were made using fake passports and false powers of attorney. The direct executor of the operation died under suspicious circumstances shortly after its completion. And for the chairman of the board of directors of Russia’s largest investment company, Renaissance Capital, Oleg Kiselev, the scandal cost his reputation and forced him to go into exile for two years.

In 2004, the Russian metallurgy industry began to take off, but was cut short by the 2008 crisis. Amid economic recovery, global steel production rose, surpassing the billion-ton mark for the first time in history. The capacities of metal producers from developed countries were not enough to satisfy the growing demand, and Russian metallurgists got their piece of the pie: almost all types of steel and rolled products rose in price by 1.5–2 times during 2004. At the end of 2004, the net profit of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) increased by 90%, Severstal - by 127%, and the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works (NLMK) - by 170%.

Following the rise in prices for cast iron and steel, the raw materials for their smelting - coke and iron ore - began to rise in price. Metallurgists, without skimping, rushed to acquire mining and processing plants. One of the largest companies in the industry, EvrazHolding, paid the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) $244 million for 85.6% of the shares of the Kachkanarsky GOK, NLMK bought the Stoilensky GOK for $650 million (the fifth and third largest producers of iron ore raw materials in Russia, respectively). But the most desirable for Russian metallurgists remained the Mikhailovsky GOK, the country’s second iron ore producer, developing deposits of the almost inexhaustible Kursk magnetic anomaly. It was not just a large mining and processing plant - it was definitely known about this mining and processing plant that it was for sale.

The owner of the Mikhailovsky GOK, Boris Ivanishvili, was considered one of the most influential Russian businessmen in the 1990s. Before the 1998 crisis, the Russian Credit bank that belonged to him was third in the country in terms of assets among private banks. Ivanishvili owned a large stake in the Krasnoyarsk aluminum smelter and shares in several other metallurgical enterprises. Ivanishvili himself preferred to keep a low profile; in public, the group’s business was represented by his junior partner, Vitaly Malkin, who was part of the famous “seven bankers.”

But a lot has changed since Yeltsin's time. Russian Credit suffered greatly from the 1998 crisis, and in order to pay off the bank’s debts, Ivanishvili gradually sold off its property. By 2004, it was the turn of the Mikhailovsky GOK. As Ivanishvili himself said, he negotiated the fate of the enterprise with the owners of all the largest metallurgical holdings in the country - Vladimir Lisin (NLMK), Viktor Rashnikov (MMK), Alexey Mordashov (Severstal). But the furthest thing, the businessman admitted, was negotiations with Alexander Abramov, co-owner of EvrazHolding. “We already had the documents ready to sign, but then I received an offer from my long-time friend Vasily Anisimov and Alisher Usmanov,” Ivanishvili told Vedomosti. Usmanov and Anisimov were just collecting metallurgical assets into the Metalloinvest holding.

Perhaps Ivanishvili accepted the offer of Anisimov, his former partner, with whom he was engaged in metallurgy in Krasnoyarsk in the early 1990s, for security reasons: the struggle for the mining and processing plant was serious, and its owner was already hinted that he might lose the plant and not receive money . Moreover, in 2004, Ivanishvili spent most of his time in France and was not considered as a serious player capable of fighting back in the event of a collision. He felt comfortable with his “old friend” Anisimov - and the parties shook hands. Vneshtorgbank issued $1 billion as collateral for GOK shares, and this money went into the accounts of Ivanishvili’s companies. Has the fate of the plant been decided? Nothing like this. Too many serious contenders needed the ore from the Mikhailovsky GOK. “Different people began to hover around. Either the security officers will come, or the bandits,” says one of Ivanishvili’s longtime acquaintances. Something had to happen.

On January 12, 2005, immediately after the New Year holidays, a delegation of 11 people led by a bailiff came to the ING Bank Eurasia building in Moscow. The visitors presented documents allowing the seizure of 96% of the shares of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC, the nominal holder of which was ING (this is a common practice - to transfer shares for safekeeping to specialized divisions of the largest banks). All formalities were observed, and the bankers had no choice but to agree to the demands. An act of inventory and seizure of securities was drawn up. Everything happened in literally half an hour. The “guests” left the bank building, boarded a minibus parked next to the entrance and departed. Bank employees rushed to call representatives of the real owners.

What made the situation especially poignant was the fact that these shares had already been paid for by the buyer. “The money is gone, but there are no shares. They are under arrest. And among people (Alisher Usmanov and his partners. - Forbes) I got the impression that someone wanted to steal the shares,” says a direct participant in those events. As it turned out later, the operation, which disrupted the plans of one of the most influential businessmen in the country, Alisher Usmanov, was prepared in just a couple of months, and several of its key participants were hired almost off the street for pennies. Here's how the story unfolded.

In October 2004, the Renaissance Capital group organized a pleasure trip to Austria for its VIP clients and partners. Among others, Renaissance President Oleg Kiselev and businessman Dmitry Klyuev flew to the Alps to hunt. Kiselev was widely known in the business community: back in 1989, together with the future oligarch Mikhail Fridman, he founded the Alfa Photo cooperative. Then he was engaged in his own business, managed to work in the management of several large companies owned by Ivanishvili, and was one of the founders of the short-lived TVS television channel (later a team of journalists from the defeated NTV moved there). Kiselev was - and still is - on the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) and in this capacity has repeatedly attended meetings between President Vladimir Putin and representatives of big business. He took the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Renaissance Capital Investment Group in January 2004.

Klyuev was much less known. He owned several law and accounting firms and a small Universal Savings Bank. Klyuev helped his clients resolve tax issues, registered and liquidated companies, and built business ownership schemes. Kiselev and Klyuev were already casually acquainted, but they became close friends precisely on that hunt in the Alps.

Later, during interrogation by an investigator, Dmitry Klyuev described one of the meetings with Kiselev as follows: “In December 2004, my friend Oleg Vladimirovich Kiselev approached me with a request to somehow arrest the shares of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC... Why did Kiselev need to arrest the shares GOK, he did not explain.” For this operation, Klyuev, as follows from the testimony, was promised a million dollars.

The script chosen was simple. One company, supposedly owning shares of the Mikhailovsky GOK, sells these shares to another company. The contract is fictitious, since the “seller” does not have rights to the securities. The “buyer” does not receive the shares and goes to court with a demand to seize the disputed stake. Absurd? Russian arbitration courts satisfy such claims if the purchasing company provides a bank guarantee in the amount of the value of the seized securities. The guarantee was issued by the Universal Savings Bank owned by Klyuev. To be sure, Klyuev’s assistants filed two lawsuits at once - in Rostov and Irkutsk.

The scheme was developed in a hurry (the customer, as Klyuev stated in his testimony, set strict deadlines). The companies that Klyuev’s henchmen involved in the operation (including Shimlen LLC of the late Sergei Senkin) had false registration data. For example, Colchecter, a company registered in the Bahamas, was liquidated back in 2001. Her representative, who was among the visitors to ING Bank, acted under a false power of attorney, under a false name, and used a passport with a photo taped over; he received $500 for the work. The bailiff participating in the operation did not have the right to do this, since he had already been transferred to another unit. Nevertheless, everything went like clockwork. Klyuev, who returned to Moscow after the New Year holidays, received a document worth a million dollars - a protocol on the seizure of shares in the mining and processing plant. But he soon regretted getting involved in this matter.

“I can only say one thing about the attempt to arrest the shares: if anyone has read Kipling, then among our metallurgists there are such characters akin to the jackal Tabaki under Shere Khan. We know who it is, and the investigation will help us find out who helped them in this,” a couple of days after the arrest of shares of the Mikhailovsky GOK, Alisher Usmanov weighed every word in an interview with Forbes.

Neither Kiselev, nor even more so Klyuev could have been the final customers of the operation. And who could? Usmanov spoke in hints. “I think he’s on your list. Not in the top ten, but not last either. Yes, by the way, I guess that he is not alone,” the businessman reasoned vaguely. The materials of the guilty verdict in the case of seizure of shares contain more specific information on this matter.

“On the twentieth of December 2004, I received an order from Dmitry Klyuev to control the transfer of funds in the amount of about $1 million from the chairman of the board of directors of Renaissance Capital Oleg Kiselev,” Elena Kudinova, chief accountant of Klyuev’s company Satellite Consulting Center, testified during interrogation. . Having contacted Kiselev’s assistant Yulia Lisitsyna, Kudinova asked when the money would be transferred and asked to dictate the payment details to her. Lisitsyna replied that the funds had most likely already been transferred, but she could not say the payment details: the money, they say, “should have been transferred not from Oleg Kiselev, but from the vice-president of EvrazHolding [Alexander] Frolov.” This is one of two references to EvrazHolding in the indictment, the company to which Boris Ivanishvili almost sold the mining and processing plant, at the last moment preferring Usmanov and Anisimov. Evraz did not respond to Forbes’ questions asked during the preparation of this article.

Meanwhile, Usmanov quickly launched a counteroffensive. The day after the shares were seized, the first deputy chairman of VTB, Vadim Levin (the bank, we recall, financed the deal) notified the head of the Federal Bailiff Service about the fraud. Usmanov’s lawyers flew to Rostov and Irkutsk and provided documents on the real owners of the mining and processing plant shares. Already on January 31, 2005, the arrest imposed by Klyuev was lifted.

“Usmanov decided to squeeze out not 100% of the situation, but 150%,” says a participant in the events. Heavy artillery was used - federal television channels. On the Rossiya channel, in the program “Honest Detective,” there was a story about the attempt to seize the mining and processing plant, where, in particular, footage from the bank’s CCTV cameras was shown, in which the faces of the participants in the operation were clearly visible.

“I learned from friends that there was a program on TV regarding the arrest of the shares, where my photograph was shown, among others,” a certain Alexey Pechkin later said during interrogation by the investigator. It was he who, using a passport with a photograph taped over, filed lawsuits on behalf of a fictitious buyer of shares in the Mikhailovsky GOK. Pechkin realized that things were taking a serious turn. He was one of the few witnesses to everything that happened and, fearing for his life, went to his relatives in the Orenburg region, where he hid for about six months. (Pechkin was later convicted as an accomplice to the crime and received 1 year and 8 months in a penal colony.)

Another person involved in the case also disappeared from the investigation - Klyuev’s assistant Sergei Albaev, who, on the instructions of the boss, “put together a scheme” - people and companies, and then, as a witness, was present during the arrest of the bank’s shares. Already on February 22, he was summoned for questioning by the investigator. Albaev tried to be cunning: he supposedly happened to be near the ING office, a stranger approached him and offered to participate in the seizure of shares in “some bank” for $100. A week later, Albaev, without saying a word to his wife, disappeared. A couple of months later, an unknown person called his wife and said that Sergei had died.

Albaev weighed 140 kg and smoked a lot. Therefore, the diagnosis - death from acute heart failure - looked plausible. However, what Albaev did in the last months of his life and why his corpse was discovered in a hotel in one of the regional centers of the Rostov region remained unknown.

The investigation painstakingly unraveled the chain of connections. In June 2005, in the next program “Honest Detective”, dedicated to the failed attempt to arrest the shares of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant, the “customer of the crime” was named - Dmitry Klyuev. Klyuev realized that things had gone too far. He came to the investigator and described in detail the events of December 2004, including the role of Oleg Kiselev in them, essentially shifting all the blame to the top manager of Renaissance.

At eight o’clock in the evening on August 10, 2005, operatives raided the office of the Renaissance Capital investigative group, and a search began in Kiselev’s office. From the cabinet next to the desk of the chairman of the board of directors of the investment company, senior lieutenant Dmitry Prokhorov fished out a large paper bag with the inscription “Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Government." Inside the envelope, opened in the presence of attesting witnesses, were found an act of inventory and seizure of shares of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant, extracts from the register of shares of the enterprise, a plan printed on a sheet of paper for the seizure of shares of the plant and several passports. Kiselev, who arrived half an hour after the search began, stated that he did not know how the package ended up in his closet.

Later, during interrogation, the president of Renaissance admitted acquaintance with Klyuev and confirmed that he had discussed a possible deal to sell the Mikhailovsky GOK. But he categorically rejected the role of ordering the seizure of shares attributed to him. And soon Kiselev, who still remained in the status of a witness, managed to travel abroad. Klyuev was charged with attempted theft of shares and ordered not to leave the place.

What happened? According to a Forbes source, Evraz’s representatives in the negotiations with Ivanishvili were top managers of the investment company Renaissance Capital. In this case, Kiselev could only fulfill the wishes of a large client. In any case, one of the participants in the events claims in an interview with Forbes, Kiselev had no intention of stealing shares. Someone just needed to hold up the deal and “get into the conversation” as quickly as possible. Kiselyov might simply not have known that the negotiations between Ivanishvili and Usmanov had gone so far. He could believe that Ivanishvili still remains the owner of the shares of the mining and processing plant. This was Kiselev’s first big mistake, says Forbes’ source. And the second mistake was that, having ordered the process to be slowed down, Kiselev did not control further events.

In other words, Kiselev became a victim of his own carelessness: he conveyed to Klyuev a request to slow down Ivanishvili’s negotiations with other buyers, and he “messed up.” This is just one version. There are others too.

Representatives of Renaissance have always maintained that the company was not involved in fraud with shares of the Mikhailovsky GOK. Renaissance defended this position in communications not only with journalists, but also with the investigation. “Around the end of January 2005, Deputy Director [for Economic Security] Yuri Sagaidak came to my office,” Stephen Jennings, the main shareholder of Renaissance Capital and chairman of the company’s board of directors, testified during interrogation by the investigator. - Sagaidak said that there are suspicions that Kiselev is involved in some illegal actions regarding the shares of the Mikhailovsky GOK, and, according to rumors, EvrazHolding has something to do with this conflict. After a conversation with the head of the security service, Jennings summoned Kiselev and demanded an explanation. Kiselev, as follows from Jennings’ testimony, assured that he was not involved in the scam. Renaissance itself was never the target of the investigation, Jennings noted, declining to comment on this story to Forbes.

How did the head of the Renaissance security service find out about the arrest of shares of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant? As follows from the court materials, Yuri Sagaidak was told about this by the direct organizer of the scam, Dmitry Klyuev. Klyuev and Sagaidak had known each other for several years and maintained friendly relations. It was Sagaidak who first introduced Klyuev to Kiselev and recommended him as a great specialist in corporate law. It turns out that Oleg Kiselev was simply appointed “extreme” when the smell of frying began?

Regardless of who ordered the seizure of the shares, the operation failed. But the buyer of the mining and processing plant was not inclined to forgive the offenders. “There must be honor. It’s like in chess: if you lose, then you have to hit him on the head with a chessboard, or what?” - Vasily Anisimov philosophized in an interview with Forbes. However, a Forbes source, a participant in those events, believes that Usmanov and his partners were pushed to aggravate the situation by other considerations. “If [Usmanov] could prove that all this was done on the instructions of Abramov and Frolov, then a powerful lever of influence on Evraz would appear,” says the source. And converting this “resource” into something tangible is a matter of technology.

However, despite all the efforts of the investigators, the Evraz group is mentioned in the case only in passing - in particular, in the testimony of Elena Kudinova, Klyuev’s accountant. Her interlocutor, Kiseleva’s secretary, did not confirm anything that Kudinova said. It was never possible to reliably link Evraz to the scandal, and investigators only brought to the end the cases of the perpetrators.

The case of Oleg Kiselev was separated into separate proceedings. While in London, Kiselev met with investigators several times and gave testimony. His lawyers insisted that the package with the inscription “Administration of the President of the Russian Federation” was obtained with procedural violations - in particular, a representative of Renaissance Capital, the owner of the premises, was absent during the search. As a result, Kiselev’s business fell apart, he returned to Russia and works as the financial director of the state corporation Rusnano. “Forbes magazine’s questions were asked to me by representatives of the prosecutor’s office, and I answered them in detail. I don’t see any point in raising this story again,” Kiselev said through the press service.

Dmitry Klyuev and several of his accomplices nevertheless appeared in court. The prosecutor demanded six years in prison for Klyuev, but the court limited himself to three years probation. Forbes was unable to find Dmitry Klyuev. The Satellite Consulting Center company, of which Klyuev was listed as a director, was liquidated in June 2008. At the same time, the owners of the Universal Savings Bank decided to voluntarily liquidate.

Someone even made sure that it was impossible to collect information about Klyuev on the Internet. If you type “Dmitry Vladislavovich Klyuev” in Yandex, then the first 20 links lead to forums and message boards where the same text is published. Here it is: “Dmitry Vladislavovich Klyuev is no longer just a person, he is truly a wonderful assistant in good deeds.”

Story:

Mikhailovsky GOK is part of the METALLOINVEST holding, the largest mining and metallurgical company in Russia. Mikhailovsky GOK today is a modern high-tech production complex that uses the latest equipment and technology, as well as advanced technologies for mining and processing iron ore.

The plant was built on the basis of the Mikhailovskoye deposit, located 100 kilometers north of the city of Kursk and part of the structure of a large massif of ferruginous quartzites with an area of ​​6.5 X 2.5 km2. The volume of explored ore reserves is more than 11 billion tons.

Mikhailovsky GOK is the largest enterprise in Europe in terms of iron ore reserves and the third producer of iron ore in Europe and the CIS.

Actively developing a rich raw material base, Mikhailovsky GOK annually increases investments in the modernization of existing and construction of new production facilities, the development and implementation of new energy-saving technologies, which gives the enterprise the opportunity to expand the range and improve the quality of its products.

The high quality of commercial products of JSC Mikhailovsky GOK is ensured thanks to advanced production technologies and modern methods of managing the plant’s activities.

In 2006, as a result of a certification audit conducted by the certification body TUV CERT (Germany), the compliance of the Quality Management System (QMS) of JSC Mikhailovsky GOK with the requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2000 was recognized.

In December 2007, compliance with ISO 9001 was confirmed during a surveillance audit. Representatives of an independent auditing firm selectively checked the iron ore mining and beneficiation stages, where the plant demonstrated improvements in production processes, as well as commercial and transport services, and personnel management.

In January 2009, the plant underwent a second QMS surveillance audit (spot check of units) within the validity period of the received certificate. No inconsistencies or deviations from the requirements of the international standard were identified. The auditors highly appreciated the development of infrastructure at the plant; systematic improvement of working conditions for plant workers, which directly affects the quality of work performed; effective presentation of improvements in the functioning of the QMS and its processes.

In November 2009, due to the expiration of the certificate and the release of a new version of MS ISO 9001:2008, the plant underwent a recertification audit according to the new requirements. For the first time, simultaneously with the QMS audit, a certification audit of the current occupational health and safety management system was carried out for compliance with the international standard OHSAS 18001:2007. Based on the results of the audits, the auditors did not identify any deviations or shortcomings from the requirements of the international standards ISO 9001:2008 and OHSAS 18001:2007 at JSC Mikhailovsky GOK.

The introduction of an integrated management system allowed the plant to connect various aspects of its activities into a single whole, to optimally manage professional risks and costs, thereby reducing the cost of production; implement a general strategy that orients the enterprise towards the constant development and improvement of the organization’s management.

The plant produces the following types of products:

Blast furnace ore (mass fraction of iron - 40%)
- Sinter ore (mass fraction of iron – 52%)
- Concentrate (mass fraction of Fe – 65.1%)
- Dried concentrate (mass fraction of Fe – 65.1%)
- Blast furnace concentrate (mass fraction of Fe – 60%)
- Pellets (mass fraction of Fe – 63%)
- Crushed stone

The main consumers of the plant's products on the domestic market are: Kosogorsk Metallurgical Plant, Ural Steel and Tulachermet plants, West Siberian, Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Iron and Steel Works, Severstal, Petrostal, Izhstal, Svobodny Sokol plants. The plant's foreign partners are metallurgical enterprises from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine. The plant's iron ore products are also shipped to Kazakhstan, Iceland, and China. The geography of the export market for iron ore products is constantly expanding due to an increase in sales volumes and the inclusion of new partners among consumers.

1957- the beginning of construction of a mining enterprise for the extraction of rich ore from the Mikhailovskoye deposit.

1960- the first ladle of rich iron ore was mined.

1961- a crushing and screening plant was put into operation.

1967– construction of the mining and processing complex began.

1973- the first iron ore concentrate was obtained.

1974- the first stage of the plant came into operation.

1976- the pelletizing factory came into operation

1977- the first million tons of pellets were produced.

1978- a shaped foundry shop for cast iron, steel and non-ferrous castings was put into operation.

year 2001- construction of the only modular plant in Russia for the preparation of explosive components has been completed.

2004- the billionth ton of ore was mined.

2006:

– The powers of the single executive body of OJSC Mikhailovsky GOK were transferred to LLC Management Company Metalloinvest.
- Mikhailovsky GOK became the winner of the V All-Russian competition “Russian organization of high social efficiency”.
- The only installation in Russia for the production of flotation concentrate was put into operation, a certificate was received for compliance of the quality management system of JSC Mikhailovsky GOK with the requirements of the International Standard ISO 9001:2000.

2007:

Mikhailovsky GOK became the winner of the VI All-Russian competition “Russian organization of high social efficiency”.
- A pilot concentration plant was launched to produce hematite concentrate from waste from current production.
- Start of construction of the third roasting machine.

2008:

The first control audit of compliance of the quality management system with the International Standard ISO 9001 was successfully completed.
- A mobile environmental post was purchased.
- The first batch of hematite concentrate was obtained from the current waste of wet magnetic separation.

year 2009:

The implementation of a new production automation system has begun.
- Passed a recertification audit of the quality management system according to the ISO 9001:2008 standard and a certification audit of the occupational safety management system according to the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard.

2010:

At the Mikhailovsky GOK, construction has begun on the complex of roasting machine No. 3 - the largest pelletizing plant in Russia.
- Mikhailovsky GOK celebrated the 50th anniversary of the extraction of the first ton of ore.

Honestly, I didn’t even think that I would be able to get to such a place and see everything with my own eyes. Not everyone gets such a chance, but I got it and today I’ll tell you about it. About how iron ore is mined, how it is turned into HBI (and what it is), and how finished steel products are made from it.

Today, especially for the community, a report from the Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant and a story about what happens to the ore after it reaches the plant.

First, I’ll tell you about the quarry itself. Lebedinsky GOK is the largest Russian enterprise for the extraction and processing of iron ore and has the largest iron ore mine in the world. The plant and quarry are located in the Belgorod region, between the cities of Stary Oskol and Gubkin.

View of the quarry from above. It is really huge and growing every day. The depth of the Lebedinsky GOK pit is 250 m from sea level or 450 m from the surface of the earth (and the diameter is 4 by 5 kilometers), groundwater constantly seeps into it, and if it were not for the work of the pumps, it would fill to the very top in a month. It is twice listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest quarry for the extraction of non-combustible minerals.

Some official information: Lebedinsky GOK is part of the Metalloinvest concern and is the leading producer of iron ore products in Russia. In 2011, the share of concentrate production by the plant in the total annual production of iron ore concentrate and sinter ore in Russia amounted to 21%.

There are a lot of different types of equipment at work in the quarry, but the most noticeable, of course, are the multi-ton Belaz and Caterpillar dump trucks.

Each year, both plants included in the company (Lebedinsky and Mikhailovsky GOK) produce about 40 million tons of iron ore in the form of concentrate and sinter ore (this is not the volume of production, but enriched ore, that is, separated from waste rock). Thus, it turns out that on average about 110 thousand tons of enriched iron ore are produced per day at the two mining and processing plants.

This baby transports up to 220 tons (!) of iron ore at a time.

The excavator gives a signal and he carefully reverses. Just a few buckets and the giant’s body is filled. The excavator gives the signal again and the dump truck drives off.

Recently, Belaz trucks with a lifting capacity of 160 and 220 tons were purchased (until now, the loading capacity of dump trucks in quarries was no more than 136 tons), and the arrival of Hitachi excavators with a bucket capacity of 23 cubic meters is expected. (currently the maximum bucket capacity of mining excavators is 12 cubic meters).

“Belaz” and “Caterpillar” alternate. By the way, an imported dump truck transports only 180 tons. Dump trucks with such a large carrying capacity are new equipment that is currently being supplied to mining and processing plants as part of Metalloinvest’s investment program to increase the efficiency of the mining and transport complex.

The stones have an interesting texture, pay attention. If I'm not mistaken on the left, quartzite is the kind of ore that iron is extracted from. The quarry is full of not only iron ore, but also various minerals. They are generally of no interest for further processing on an industrial scale. Today, chalk is obtained from waste rock, and crushed stone is also made for construction purposes.

Beautiful stones, I can’t say exactly what kind of mineral it is, can someone tell me?

Every day, 133 units of basic mining equipment (30 heavy-duty dump trucks, 38 excavators, 20 drilling machines, 45 traction units) operate in the quarry of the Lebedinsky GOK.

Of course, I hoped to see spectacular explosions, but even if they took place that day, I still would not have been able to penetrate the quarry territory. This explosion is done once every three weeks. All equipment according to safety standards (and there is a lot of it) is removed from the quarry before this.

Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK are the two largest iron ore mining and processing plants in Russia in terms of production volume. The Metalloinvest company has the world's second largest proven reserves of iron ore - about 14.6 billion tons according to the international classification JORC, which guarantees about 150 years of exploitation period at the current level of production. So the residents of Stary Oskol and Gubkin will be provided with work for a long time.

You probably noticed from the previous photographs that the weather was not good, it was raining, and there was fog in the quarry. Closer to departure, it dissipated slightly, but still not much. I pulled out the photo as much as possible. The size of the quarry is certainly impressive.

Right in the middle of the quarry there is a mountain of waste rock, around which all the ore containing iron was mined. Soon it is planned to blow it up in parts and remove it from the quarry.

Iron ore is loaded immediately into railway trains, into special reinforced cars that transport the ore from the quarry, they are called dump cars, their carrying capacity is 105 tons.

Geological layers from which one can study the history of the Earth's development.

From the top of the observation deck, the giant machines seem no bigger than an ant.

Then the ore is taken to the plant, where the process of separating the waste rock using the magnetic separation method takes place: the ore is crushed finely, then sent to a magnetic drum (separator), to which, in accordance with the laws of physics, everything that is iron sticks, and what is not iron is washed off with water. The resulting iron ore concentrate is then used to make pellets and hot briquetted iron (HBI), which is then used to make steel.
Hot briquetted iron (HBI) is one of the types of directly reduced iron (DRI). Material with a high (>90%) iron content, obtained using a technology other than blast furnace processing. Used as a raw material for steel production. High-quality (with a small amount of harmful impurities) substitute for cast iron and scrap metal.

Unlike cast iron, HBI production does not use coal coke. The process of producing briquetted iron is based on processing iron ore raw materials (pellets) at high temperatures, most often through natural gas.

You can’t just go inside the HBI plant, because the process of baking hot briquetted pies takes place at a temperature of about 900 degrees, and sunbathing in Stary Oskol was not part of my plans).

Lebedinsky GOK is the only producer of HBI in Russia and the CIS. The plant began production of this type of product in 2001, launching a workshop for the production of HBI (HBI-1) using HYL-III technology with a capacity of 1.0 million tons per year. In 2007, LGOK completed the construction of the second stage of the HBI production workshop (HBI-2) using MIDREX technology with a production capacity of 1.4 million tons per year. Currently, the production capacity of LGOK is 2.4 million tons of HBI per year.

After the quarry, we visited the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK), which is part of the Metallurgical segment of the company. In one of the plant's workshops these steel blanks are produced. Their length can reach from 4 to 12 meters, depending on the wishes of customers.

Do you see a bunch of sparks? A piece of steel is cut off at that point.

An interesting machine with a bucket, called a bucket carrier, into which slag is poured during the production process.

In the neighboring workshop, OEMK grinds and polishes steel rods of different diameters, which were rolled in another workshop. By the way, this plant is the seventh largest enterprise in Russia for the production of steel and steel products. In 2011, the share of steel production at OEMK amounted to 5% of the total volume of steel produced in Russia, the share of rolled products production also amounted to 5%.

OEMK uses advanced technologies, including direct reduction of iron and electric arc melting, which ensures the production of high-quality metal with a reduced content of impurities.

The main consumers of OEMK metal products on the Russian market are enterprises in the automotive, machine-building, pipe, hardware and bearing industries.

OEMK metal products are exported to Germany, France, the USA, Italy, Norway, Turkey, Egypt and many other countries.

The plant has mastered the production of long products for the manufacture of products used by the world's leading automakers, such as Peugeot, Mercedes, Ford, Renault, and Volkswagen. Some products are used to make bearings for these same foreign cars.

By the way, this is not the first time I have noticed women crane operators in such industries.

This plant has an almost sterile cleanliness, which is not typical for such industries.

I like the neatly folded steel rods.

At the customer's request, a sticker is attached to each product.

The sticker is stamped with the heat number and steel grade code.

The opposite end can be marked with paint, and tags with the contract number, country of destination, steel grade, heat number, size in millimeters, supplier name and weight of the package are attached to each package of finished products.

These products are the standards by which equipment for precision rolling is adjusted.

And this machine can scan the product and identify microcracks and defects before the metal reaches the customer.

The company takes safety precautions seriously.

All water used in production is purified by recently installed state-of-the-art equipment.

This is the plant's wastewater treatment plant. After processing, it is cleaner than in the river where it is dumped.

Technical water, almost distilled. Like any industrial water, you cannot drink it, but you can try it once, it is not dangerous to your health.

The next day we went to Zheleznogorsk, located in the Kursk region. This is where the Mikhailovsky GOK is located. The photo shows the complex of roasting machine No. 3 under construction. Pellets will be produced here.

$450 million will be invested in its construction. The enterprise will be built and put into operation in 2014.

Then we went to the quarry of the Mikhailovsky GOK. The depth of the MGOK quarry is more than 350 meters from the surface of the earth, and its size is 3 by 7 kilometers. There are actually three quarries on its territory, as can be seen in the satellite image. One big and two smaller. In about 3-5 years, the quarry will grow so much that it will become one large unified one, and perhaps will catch up in size with the Lebedinsky quarry.

Otherwise, ore production at MGOK is no different from LGOK.

This time we still managed to get to the plant, where iron ore concentrate is converted into the final product - pellets..
Pellets are lumps of crushed ore concentrate. Semi-finished product of metallurgical iron production. It is a product of the enrichment of iron-containing ores using special concentrating methods. Used in blast furnace production to produce cast iron.

Iron ore concentrate is used to produce pellets. To remove mineral impurities, the original (raw) ore is finely crushed and enriched in various ways.

The process of making pellets is often called “pelletizing”. The charge, that is, a mixture of finely ground concentrates of iron-containing minerals, flux (additives that regulate the composition of the product), and strengthening additives (usually bentonite clay), is moistened and subjected to pelletization in rotating bowls (granulators) or pelletizing drums. They are the ones in the picture.

Then the pellets are sent along a belt to the firing body.

They are dried and fired at temperatures of 1200÷1300° C in special installations - firing machines. Calcining machines (usually the conveyor type) are a conveyor of calcining carts (pallets) that move on rails.

But the picture shows the concentrate that will soon end up in the drums.

In the upper part of the roasting machine, above the roasting carts, there is a heating furnace, in which gaseous, solid or liquid fuel is burned and a coolant is formed for drying, heating and roasting the pellets. There are roasting machines with cooling of pellets directly on the machine and with an external cooler. Unfortunately, we did not see this process.

The fired pellets acquire high mechanical strength. During firing, a significant portion of sulfur contaminants is removed. This is what the ready-to-eat product looks like.)

Despite the fact that the equipment has been in service since Soviet times, the process is automated and does not require a large number of personnel to monitor it.

The open joint-stock company “Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant” was established in accordance with Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated July 1, 1992 No. 721 “On organizational measures for the transformation of state institutions into joint-stock companies”, registered by the Resolution of the head of the administration of the city of Zheleznogorsk dated July 24, 1993. with assignment of state registration number No. 471.

The open joint-stock company "Mikhailovsky GOK" was formed on the basis of the state enterprise Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant as a result of its privatization in 1993.

The company is the legal successor of the state enterprise Mikhailovsky GOK, which was formed in 1974 as a result of the merger of two plants: Mikhailovsky iron ore and Mikhailovsky mining and processing plants.

Mikhailovsky GOK, being a city-forming enterprise for the city of Zheleznogorsk, generates 70% of the revenue of the city budget, 20% of the regional budget, and actively participates in the implementation of various social, cultural and economic programs of the Kursk region. Since 1998, OJSC Mikhailovsky GOK has been part of the management holding company Metalloinvest.

The authorized capital of OJSC Mikhailovsky GOK is 1,780 thousand rubles. From 2003 to the present, ordinary and preferred shares of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC are traded on the Russian Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange in the RTS Board system. The form of ownership of the enterprise is private.

Currently, JSC Mikhailovsky GOK is one of the largest efficiently operating mining enterprises in Russia, where a program is being implemented to improve product quality and reduce costs, especially the energy component of the cost. This allows you not only to stay in the market, but also to increase sales volumes.

The history of the construction and development of the Mikhailovsky GOK is largely predetermined by the scale of the plant and the territorial location of its facilities. The total area of ​​the territory occupied by the production facilities of the Mikhailovsky GOK is 11.1 thousand hectares.

The plant's raw material base is the iron ores of the Mikhailovskoye deposit, represented by rich ores with an iron content of 46-58%, unoxidized quartzites (poor ores) with a total iron content of 38-40% and oxidized quartzites with an iron content of 40-45%, which are used for economic purposes and are partially stored as promising iron raw materials. The development of the deposit is carried out by open-pit mining in one quarry with separate extraction of high-grade and low-grade ores and oxidized iron quartzites.

The main activities of the Mikhailovsky GOK are the extraction and enrichment of iron ore, commercial activities with domestic and foreign partners.

The main types of commercial products produced by Mikhailovsky GOK are fluxed pellets, sinter ore, iron ore (magnetite) concentrate, blast furnace ore, and blast furnace concentrate.

The raw material for the production of sinter ore is rich iron ore, which goes through the stage of crushing and drying (in winter against freezing) at a crushing and screening plant (CSF) to obtain sinter ore. The iron content in sinter ore is 52%. In terms of sinter ore production, Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC ranks first in Russia.

Low-grade ores go through the beneficiation stage at the crushing and processing complex (CCP) to obtain a concentrate, part of which is supplied to the pelletizing plant (FOC) for the production of pellets, and part is shipped directly to consumers. The iron content in the concentrate is 65%, harmful impurities (silica) - 8.6%. Current trends in metallurgy show that the most preferable are raw materials with a silica content of no more than 5%. Mikhailovsky GOK produces 18% of the concentrate produced in Russia.

Mikhailovsky GOK is one of four enterprises in Russia that produces pellets. Its share in their production is more than 25% (Table 2.1). The iron content in the pellets is 63%.

Table 2.1 - Production level of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC as part of the mining industry.

The commercial products of the Mikhailovsky GOK are used as raw materials for blast furnace and open-hearth production. The main Russian consumers of Mikhailovsky GOK products remain almost all of the largest ferrous metallurgy enterprises: mills and factories in the Center of Russia, Western Siberia, and the Urals. More than 26% of manufactured products are exported to countries near and far abroad.

In 2007, the program to increase the metallurgical value of the marketable products of the Mikhailovsky GOK made it possible to open new markets - China, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Korea.

The share of the export market increased from 18.8% (2006) to 28.1% (2008), while the share of shipments of iron ore products to Russian consumers decreased, although it remained dominant. Table 2.2 shows the shipment of iron ore products by Mikhailovsky GOK to various regions.

Table 2.2 - Shipment of iron ore products

Russian partners and suppliers of the Mikhailovsky GOK are: ZapSIB CJSC, MeChel CJSC, Svobodny Sokol OJSC, Kosogorsky OJSC, Satkinsky OJSC, Serovsky OJSC, Soyuzpodshipnik OJSC, Petersburg Drilling Tools Plant OJSC " and OJSC "KMAHoldingTrans", which supply various materials, equipment, spare parts.

The main competitors of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC in Russia are Lebedinsky and Stoilensky GOKs, the strengths of which are the use of the latest production technologies, high quality of products, and lower production costs. In comparison with the ores of the Stoilenskoye and Lebedinskoye deposits of the KMA basin, the ores of the Mikhailovskoye deposit are among the most difficult to process, with high strength, which causes increased energy intensity of production and increases the cost of marketable products.

The management of OJSC Mikhailovsky GOK understands that in order to maintain a leading position in the iron ore market and compete successfully, the quality of products must meet the requirements and expectations of consumers. And to some extent even exceed these expectations. Therefore, recent years (2006-2008) were marked by a large-scale renovation and reconstruction of production at the enterprise, the introduction of new technologies, which made it possible to significantly increase the volume of products produced and improve their quality.

It is no coincidence that JSC Mikhailovsky GOK currently occupies a leading position among industry leaders in terms of development dynamics. With the average industry growth of production in 2007 compared to 2006 at 8% (according to OJSC Rudprom), the increase in production at Mikhailovsky GOK amounted to 27%. At the same time, record production volumes of commercial products were achieved: 18.9 million tons worth 23.8 billion rubles.

Over the past 5 years, the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant has several times become a laureate of the All-Russian competition “Best Russian Enterprises” in the “For Dynamic Development” category. Mikhailovsky GOK today is one of the largest not only in Russia, but also in the world, mining and processing enterprises for the production of metallurgical raw materials: sinter ore, concentrate, pellets.

The supreme management body of Mikhailovsky GOK OJSC is the General Meeting of Shareholders, whose competence includes such issues as introducing amendments and additions to the Charter of the joint-stock company and electing the Board of Directors. The competence of the Board of Directors includes resolving issues of general management of the activities of the joint-stock company.

Management of the current activities of the joint-stock company is carried out by the Managing Director, who, acting on behalf of the joint-stock company, represents the interests of the Mikhailovsky GOK both in the Russian Federation and abroad.

The organizational structure of JSC Mikhailovsky GOK, presented in Appendix A, includes the main production divisions (RU, UZDT, UAT, DSF DOK, FOC), auxiliary workshops, sections, various laboratories, services and departments (electricity, heat, water supply, construction and repair services and others).

The organizational structure of the management system of JSC Mikhailovsky GOK is linear-functional. The peculiarity of this structure is that functional bodies take part in setting tasks and preparing decisions. They help the line manager (shop manager) in implementing management functions. Managers have administrative rights within the scope of their competence. Functional bodies, within the limits of fixed management functions, transfer decisions that are binding on them to divisions. Divisions operate according to the commands of immediate managers and instructions from functional bodies.

Personnel policy at the enterprise is carried out by the department of labor and personnel work, which organizes activities in the field of improving work with personnel, providing the plant with qualified workers, managers and specialists. The personnel service develops targeted personnel programs and adjusts their implementation in accordance with the parameters of the external and internal environment.

The enterprise issued an order approving a program of work with young specialists. The main areas of the program are career guidance, work with educational institutions, hiring and adaptation of young specialists, planning professional and job growth. Tripartite agreements have been concluded with educational institutions: Moscow State Mining University, Moscow State University of Transport, Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, St. Petersburg Mining Institute, Zheleznogorsk Mining and Metallurgical College, Zheleznogorsk Polytechnic College.

The logistics and technical support of the enterprise is handled by the Supply Department, which creates the necessary reserves of material resources, ensures the delivery of materials in accordance with concluded contracts, and makes claims against suppliers who violate contractual obligations.

The organization of sales of finished products is carried out by the sales department, which concludes contracts for the supply of products to consumers, organizes the delivery of products to consumers on time and in volume in accordance with orders and concluded contracts, organizes exhibitions, fairs and other advertising events. Since 2007, the sales department began work on concluding long-term contracts with foreign consumers for the supply of manufactured products.

Marketing activities at the enterprise are carried out by specialists from the commercial department. Their competence includes collecting commercial and economic information; studying consumer opinions about manufactured products; study of factors shaping the dynamics of consumer demand, the relationship between supply and demand for similar types of products.

Since 2004, financial statements at the enterprise have been prepared using international standards and verified by the world's leading auditing companies according to Russian and international standards. Thus, based on the results of work for 2007, the audit was carried out by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Audit. In addition, the plant's assets are periodically assessed.

Every year, in order to distribute risks, the company insures its assets and activities with various insurance companies. The main insurance company is Ingostrakh. The organization of internal services of the enterprise is focused on risk management and their optimization in various areas of activity.

The company has created, maintains and constantly improves a quality management system in accordance with the requirements of the international standard ISO 9001:2000.

The credit policy of the joint-stock company is aimed at maintaining an optimal level of borrowing and fulfilling obligations for settlements with counterparties, the budget, personnel, shareholders, as well as providing financing for the effective implementation of capital investments. The main partners of the enterprise are Vneshtorgbank, Vnesheconombank, Commerzbank, BNP Paribas. The company also maintains business relations with the International Moscow Bank, Raiffeisen Bank (Austria), and the Bank of Moscow. Currently, the level of the loan portfolio is 7.3% of the foreign exchange balance.

Mikhailovsky GOK is one of the largest industrial enterprises in the Kursk region. The number of workers employed in the main production exceeds 9 thousand people, and with subsidiaries it reaches 14.5 thousand people. This is 25% of the working population of the city of Zheleznogorsk.

As production develops, the total amount of tax payments to budgets of all levels increases: in 2000 it amounted to 900 million rubles, and in 2008 it increased to 6.4 billion rubles. But the plant’s social policy is not limited to timely and conscientious payment of taxes. In 2008, Mikhailovsky GOK spent 585.7 million rubles. for the development of various charitable and humanitarian programs.