Kuzbassrazrezugol creates a testing ground for testing bioremediation technologies

The Kuzbassrazrezugol coal company (a subsidiary of UMMC) is setting up a pilot test site to test innovative technologies for bioremediation of disturbed land at the Kedrovsky open-pit mine, reports the company’s press office.

The project is being implemented jointly with the Federal Research Centre for Coal and Coal Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIC UUH SB RAS), coal miners have already begun work on the organization of the test site.

According to the press release, the experimental site will be located on the territory of the former landfill site, where the technical restoration phase (flattening of the relief) was previously carried out.

On an area of about 3 hectares, the climatic and geological conditions of the different regions of Kuzbass will be recreated: from the mountain taiga (on the less lit and wetter side of the test site) to the steppe (on the more lit and less wet side).

“For the first time in the Kuzbass, we have embarked on a large-scale ecological test site project. It should integrate into practice all the tools available today, including innovative methods, many of which so far only exist on paper. In the short term this will make it possible to select the best available technologies in the field of bioremediation for the particular conditions of each company and to start their gradual implementation on an industrial scale,” – quotes the press service the deputy director for ecology, industrial safety and land management of the coal company Kuzbassrazrezugol, Vitaly Latokhine.

“The land is subdivided into 30 experimental plots, on which various types of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants will be planted in experimental form, and techniques for improving the performance of revegetation will be implemented. This important work for the entire region is being carried out on the initiative of Kuzbassrazrezugol. The company supported the calculations of our scientists”, – says Vladimir Ufimtsev, the head of the regeneration laboratory of FIC UUH SB RAS.

The program of research work on the ecological site has been designed until the end of 2021.

Kuzbassrazrezugol ranks second in Russia in terms of coal production. The company consists of six subsidiaries: Kedrovsky, Mokhovsky, Bachatsky, Krasnobrodsky, Taldinsky, Kaltansky open-cast mines and Baikaimskaya mine, the only underground coal mining company.