New dust suppression system
Stoilensky is testing its new environmental project – the dust suppression system at the tailings beaches on the pile dam.This is Stage I of the beaches sprinkling system project. Its completion in 2018 will allow to reduce dust concentration at the boundary of the buffer zone by 23 times (99.1%).
In the tailings pit (iron waste storage area) dust is generated on the beaches built-up from tailings. At the beaches, wind velocity is above the annual average during 100 days per year, resulting in higher dust concentration in the air.
Construction of the dust suppression system at the tailing beaches included installation of the underground and elevated pipelines with total length of 3.8 km, 21 sprinkling units, a booster station and 2.5 km of the overhead power transmission line.
Sprinklers are evenly distributed along the beaches within 50 meters from the crest of the dam. The maximum length of the sprinkling zone is approximately 2 km. Operation of the system can be adjusted to weather conditions.
In 2021 more than six km of the irrigation system was put into operation and more than one hundred hectares of the tailings facility get treated with the reagent annually.In 2024, NLMK mastered a dust suppression technology at the tailings storage facility, extending its application to both spring and autumn seasons. The Company coated over 150 hectares of dry beaches with a polymer binder, effectively restraining the formation of dust vortex flows at the facility, even during the dry summer and autumn periods.