Second wind under ground
With the state’s support Makiivka miners boost coal production
The management of the Makiivvuhol state-run enterprise (Makiivka, Donetsk oblast) thinks that the government’s support has allowed it to achieve an all- time high in coal production. Just a few years ago Makiivvuhol was in dire straits. A financial squeeze was severely affecting coal output and equipment procurement. Now the workforce unit believes that the situation is noticeably stabilizing.
“As of today, the Ministry of Mines has done almost everything for the facility to work smoothly for at least two or three years. Naturally, we need new long walls, but we are doing our best. There is enough work in the nearest future,” Stanislav Tolchyn, Makiivvuhol general manager, said at a press conference to announce the results of the company’s performance in the first six months of 2007.
As recently as September 2006 the association formed of 10 enterprises (Proletarska Central Refining Factory, and the joint-stock companies Pivnichna, Imeni Bazhanova, Chaikino, Imeni Lenina, Butivska, and Kholodna Balka) could only extract 2,800 tons of coal a day, an all-time low. But by October 2006 injections from the state budget allowed the facility to prepare and commission new long walls as well as to double the output of coal from December onwards. In January-May 2007 the output was 820,000 tons, 98.6 percent of the target.
By the end of the year, the association will have produced a total of three million tons (as early as July they will begin extracting 8,000 tons a day) and will increase this figure every year. According to Tolchyn, labor efficiency at the mines has increased by 60 percent since September 2006, while the production cost of coal has fallen by 30 percent.
Today Makiivvuhol has a clear-cut program until 2011. “This program calls for annual production to exceed four million tons. As a result, this state-run company will reclaim the positions it had for a long time. As for the moral, political, mining and geological climate, I would like to note that things are fine at our company. We are getting all the help that the city can give us,” the general manager told journalists.
The fact that the company’s social climate has normalized is illustrated by the influx of new workers, who are attracted by the steady salary increases. As a result, the mines have not seen any labor turnover, a true scourge that until recently hindered production development.
Tolchyn said that credit for this should be given to the company as well as the Ministry of Mines, which is doing its best to protect miners. “The minister is making every effort to protect coal-mining companies. The coal industry is worse off than other industrial sectors, and this is why it is a loss-making sector by definition. One of the methods for offsetting this is a wholesale market formed to regulate, if only to a minimal extent, already existing prices. I hope this idea, which was suggested by the minister, works,” the general manager of Makiivvuhol stressed.
Little by little the company has already begun paying off the government’s funds. Last month five million hryvnias were delivered to the budget. New equipment, special clothing, and individual protection devices are being purchased. “This was all neglected before, but we received some budgetary funds this year, and now the company is beginning to make these purchases. As for mining safety regulations, they are all being strictly observed,” Tolchyn said in conclusion.
