AAI conducted the mining section of a technical audit of the Apatit phosphorite mining operations located at Kirovsk and Apatity, Kola Peninsula, Russia. The objective of the study was the assessment of the technical status and capabilities of the underground and open pit mining operations providing feed to concentrating and chemical processing facilities. The mines included two underground and two open pit operations situated north of the Arctic Circle. Two of the four mines were comprised of consolidations of smaller underground and open pit mines. The underground mining operations were recovering reserves beneath and adjacent to open pit operations that are exhausting the strippable reserves. Underground mining methods practiced at both underground mines include mass blast stopes and sublevel caving, both of which ultimately draw cave fill from surface.
