UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 13, 2017. Russian Copper Company is going to present its environmental projects on restoring the sites and facilities damaged throughout the Soviet era at EcoTech 2017 Forum in Moscow, the company press service reports.

The company intends to reclaim an abandoned tailing dump at the former Karabash Copper-Smelting Plant and to refill Korkinsky Mine.

The reclamation plan for Karabash’s abandoned tailing dump was officially confirmed through an agreement Karabashmed signed with Russia’s Ministry for Natural Resources & the Environment, Rosprirodnadzor, and Chelyabinsk Oblast Government in November 2016.

The company’s second project aims to refill an old coal mine (Korkinsky Mine) with tailings from Tominsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant (currently under construction). Tominsky is Russian Copper Company’s large-scale project in Chelyabinsk Oblast. As a result, Europe’s largest mine will get replaced with a lake with reinforced shores, planted trees and shrubs, and urban improvements.

A research carried out by scientists at Saint Petersburg Mining University confirmed that the tailings from Tominsky are both technologically suitable and environmentally safe to refill the old mine. The experts also confirmed that the refill will help prevent endogenic fires, reduce dust emissions, and additionally cushion the mine’s edges.