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cost of $1.19 billion, it is the most expensive part of the company's new growth strategy. Uralkali has another project of simi- lar size, development of Polovodovo mine, but it is not included in the devel- opment strategy for 2020. The potential capacity of the mine is 2.8 million mt/y of KCl and it is expected that its devel- opment may be launched in 2018-2019 and finished after 2020. Potentially, it may bring the overall volume of produc- tion of KCl by the company to 17.2 mil- lion mt/y. The cost of the project could be as much as $1.6 billion, and the company may not have the capital for its implementation alongside all of the other expansion projects. At the begin- ning of 2014, Uralkali had $4.1 billion in debt that will come to term sometime in the next few years. In addition to these projects, the company has targeted an increase in the extraction ratio of potash from the sylvinite ore. They will also increase output in in circuits at the Berezniki Nos. 3 and 4 plants. Existing equip- ment will be upgraded or partially replaced with more technologically advanced options. These projects, which amount to $87 million, could yield an addition 800,000 mt/y of KCl by the end of 2016. Mining Machine Upgrades At the end of June, the company put two modernized Ural-20P continu- ous mining machines, or combines as the Russian miners refer to them, manufactured by Kopeysk Machine- Building Plant into operation. The new mining equipment was developed as part of a program to increase the out- put of combines to 1 million mt/y of ore per machine. The new machines are capable of cutting 8 mt/min–1 mt/min more than the previous Ural 20P model. The operating life has also been increased by 300,000 mt of ore to 1.8 million mt. Nine major parts have been updat- ed. The undercarriage has been over- hauled. More modern and reliable hydraulic motors have been installed. The gearboxes have been reinforced and the cutting unit has been modern- ized. An electronic control panel has also been installed in the operator's cabin and the cabin is equipped with a dust control system. The new units are currently oper- ating at the Berezniki No. 4 and Solikamsk No. 3 mines. "Increasing output in the mines is not possible without also increasing the operating life of the combines," said Eduard Smirnov, the first deputy tech- nical director of mining operations for Uralkali. "The introduction of more pro- ductive and reliable machinery leads to improved safety and increased mining efficiency." A total of 121 combines are current- ly in operation in Uralkali's five mines. Testing Begins on the Ural-360 During September, testing began on the Ural-360 shaft-sinking and tunnel-bor- ing machine—a fundamentally new piece of mining equipment that has not yet been used to extract sylvinite ore at Uralkali's mines. The main difference is the shearing unit breaks the ore. The new combine cuts through the solid lay- ers with a special drum. The Ural-20 series used disks. The company plans to use the machines for mining, development work and the extraction passages for the stopes. The new technology will allow the company to extract ore from the lower seams. "The Ural-360 combine will be able to cut through various dif- ferent seams, meaning the company can mine reserves that it was unable to extract with previous equipment," Andrey Kharintsev, head of mining for Uralkali said. "The experiment will last several months, and we hope that the new machinery will justify its use. Testing the equipment underground allows the mechanical engineers to develop prototypes that could be com- mercially produced in the future." The Kopeysk Machine Building Plant manu- factured the new combine specifically for Uralkali. The company plans to purchase eight continuous miners, eight feederbreak- ers, 10 shuttle cars, 11 LHDs, saying that it would spend more than 1.5 bil- lion rubles on new mining equipment. Ust-Yayvinsky Shaft Tubbing Uralkali recently completed a 273-m- shaft-tubbing project, where a circular a shaft is lined with ductile cast iron, on Skip Shaft No. 1 at the Ust- Yayvinsky mine. The column consists of 182 cast-iron rings, which will mini- mize the impact of the rock pressure and ensure the safe operation of the shaft in the event of contact with water- bearing layers. Sinking operations will continue down to 467 m. Completion of Skip Shaft No. is scheduled for 2017. DECEMBER 2015 • E&MJ; 41 www.e-mj.com U R A L K A L I Uralkali believes the new Ural-20P will be able to increase production to 8 mt/min, an increase of 1 mt/min.