Located approximately 200km north of Perm on the west side of the Ural range, the mine will eventually produce 10Mt/y of potash, complementing what is produced by the five other existing Uralkali mines in that area.

In 2004, Uralkali won the tender for the development of the Ust-Yayvinsky block and obtained a mining license. The reserves of the block comprise approximately 1.2 billion tonnes of sylvinite ore, which will provide 30-35 years of steady operation of the mine.

In December 2011, Uralkali signed a contract with general contractor Deilmann Haniel for construction of the shafts for the Ust-Yayvinsky mine.

The construction of the surface complex at the Ust-Jaiwa block began in 2015. Deilmann Haniel plans to complete the construction of shafts in 2017 and produce its first ore in 2020. The new mine will have two shafts: a 465m deep shaft with skip winding (for hoisting the ore) and a shaft with cage winding (for hoisting and descending workers and loads). The mined ore will be processed at the Berezniki-3 plant, where a 6.3km cable-belt conveyer will transport it.

It was imperative that the different required systems integrate well with one another and that the supplier could manage the various solutions for one holistic system.

General contractor Deilmann Haniel required an integrated shaft signalling system that included wireless and wired communication, automation for water pumping, material gripper and hydraulics for the shaft sinking platform, and a gas monitoring system. It put particular emphasis upon equipment selection and arrangement, focusing on suppliers that were able to offer superior safety and operational performance for deep shaft sinking in a difficult climate.

Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds series FBT signaling and communication system, MR90 wireless communication, Z51 automation and gas monitoring systems provided a holistic solution for the project. The solution was able to integrate all the functionality required by the shaft sinking company into one system.

Frank Otten, vice president of international projects at Deilmann Haniel explained: “To put it simply, we drill holes into the Earth, and there could be gas in these holes that could cause an explosion. Our workers are down there and we do not take any risk on safety. That’s why we chose Eaton; its solutions are in the highest explosion protection class out there.”