Gas will not replace coal: miners' labor needs urgent rehabilitation

Nikolay Zhdankin, mining engineer

The coal industry is an important link in the fuel and energy complex (FEC) of Russia. Coal is needed by the industry as air, because most of the coal is used in thermal power plants as a fuel, as well as a technological raw material and fuel in the metallurgy and chemical industries.

Coal is the bread of the industry

But the great words of V.I. Lenin that "Coal is the real bread of the industry!", Unfortunately, have long been forgotten. And now this bread has also become very bitter because of the huge human losses, in particular, during the fire at the Listvyazhnaya mine in Kuzbass. What are the root causes of this tragedy?

The country has long been heading for a raw materials economy, extracting and selling raw materials. If today oil and gas in the produced volume are needed, mainly in order to earn money (by the way, not too much money), then coal is needed precisely for the development of the country. And for our economy, in order to increase the size of the budget, increase the income of the population, improve the quality of life, etc., it is necessary:

1. To provide an escape from raw material dependence and the wide development of processing industries.
2. Build factories, introduce new innovative technologies and modern equipment.
3. To develop our own mechanical engineering.
4. Have enough metal and electricity for this.
5. To ensure the growth of coal production: both coking and power-generating.

Here is a simple development formula based on COAL. Note that this approach provides a massive creation of new jobs, overcoming unemployment, an increase in budget and people income, i.e. everything that modern Russia urgently needs.

In the energy balance of Russia, coal accounts for about 14-16%, while in the world the situation is different. In the energy balance of South Africa, coal occupies more than 90%, in the PRC - 64%, in India - 58%, in Japan - 30%, etc., and in the world in general - 28%. As you can see, the value of coal is very high. Of course, now in Russia, coal is less competitive in the energy sector as compared to gas, especially since when coal is burned, large volumes of carbon dioxide are emitted and a lot of ash remains. But in the near future, with the depletion of gas reserves and, especially, with the development of new technologies (for example, pulverized coal, coal gasification, coal chemistry, etc.), its role in the energy sector will increase, according to the forecast, up to 35-40%. Therefore, we must not forget about coal.

Coal (coking) is especially important in ferrous metallurgy, where metal cannot be smelted without it. Of all the coal mined in Russia, 2/3 is steam coal, and only 1/3 is coking coal. Coke, burning in a blast furnace, gives heat and is a source of obtaining a reducing agent of iron oxides. The more carbon is contained in the coke, the better the coke quality and the more efficient the metal smelting process. Naturally, with the growth of metal production for the needs of machine building, more coal will also be needed. Thus, the demand for coal, according to our forecasts, will grow, both for thermal coal and for coking coal.

It is important to note here the volume of coal reserves in Russia. According to the authoritative organization OPEC, oil reserves (given today's production volumes) may last for 30-40 years, natural gas for 75-80 years, and coal for 400-500 years. As you can see, coal for us is a truly strategic “bread of industry” with a long perspective in time, which cannot be said about oil and gas. Therefore, resources must be conserved and spent very efficiently, thinking about future generations ...

Coal is people

People, miners are the driving force behind the coal industry. It is thanks to their talents and professionalism, high dedication and heroism (yes, this is truly heroic work!) That new horizons are being prepared, longwalls are cut, coal is mined, and at the same time innovations (innovations) are introduced at all stages of work and high quality products are ensured.

But now, as we have already noted, coal is forgotten at the state level. Once one of the most respected, famous and paid professions, the mining profession is in oblivion. Although the prospects for the coal industry are enormous. Unfortunately, miners are remembered only when methane explosions and fires occur in mines, where dozens of people die, as was the case at Listvyazhnaya. A total of 51 (!!!) people died, many of whom have not yet been lifted up the mountain.

And this is awful. When they collect state commissions and sort out the reasons for a long time, and then ... they pay families, at best, several million rubles, "compensating" for the loss of breadwinners. But people cannot be returned ... And then again silence, until the next mass fatal accident. How many more people must die for the state to finally pay attention to coal?

As there was not, and there is no strong and clear control system that would allow constantly keeping the situation within the normal range and would reduce the risks of such accidents. Although in the USSR there was a clear system of Gosgortekhnadzor, it also failed. As you know, every million tons of mined coal was “paid for” by one human life ...

Today the prestige of the mining profession has been lost. Earlier in the USSR, the entire country followed the volume of coal mining, as the most important resource for industrial development, applauding the miners and congratulating them on regular orders and medals for labor exploits. Now no one even remembers it. Now there are victorious reports only about how many gas pipelines we have built and how many billion cubic meters of gas we are driving to this or that country, although the level of gasification in Russia itself is only about 60-65%. This is just a shame for a state with huge gas reserves. Although now the situation has begun to change a little ...

Mine control system

Mine control is the most important management function. And it's a pity that this function has become commercial , when Rostekhnadzor inspectors sign acts of admission to work, without even going down the mine. It's impossible to think of this! Do you think this is done out of mental simplicity? Of course not. Only for money! Incredible corruption reigns there. And not only there, but in all areas of industrial safety, labor protection and ecology in general.

Now many enterprises, incl. mines, factories and others, where there are hazardous production facilities, have certified management systems in accordance with MS ISO 14001, ISO 45001, etc., which “allow” them to work in their production, which is what inspectors often hide behind. But such work is done to the detriment of the health and often the life of the personnel of these enterprises.

It's not a secret for anyone that many certificates are simply bought by enterprises, beautiful documents are “drawn” that have nothing to do with real life. It is enough to open the Internet to understand that buying a certificate is easier than a steamed turnip. And many inspectors turn a blind eye to this: the document is there, so everything is in order. Of course, they are trying to do something, but this is clearly not enough. But in reality - constant emissions and explosions of gas, fires, dangerous diseases and often massive deaths of people, as it was now.

It turns out that it is important for any enterprise to have the "correct" documents, but it is not at all necessary to comply with them. Sometimes it is even easier to pay a fine or bribe an inspector than to really improve your safety and environmental friendliness ...

It is also striking that as soon as this tragedy occurred, an order was urgently given to urgently check all the mines. When the rooster pecked in one place, they immediately began to think what to do. Hundreds of violations were immediately revealed. And if it were not for this order, then everything would have worked as usual, as always ... until another explosion or fire. Therefore, commissioning is a skewed approach. You have to work according to your job responsibilities. The direct and most important task of inspection organizations is not to wait for orders from above, but to regularly monitor the situation, as well as take timely measures to eliminate violations. For this they receive their salary.

The deplorable salary of miners

Yes, today the salary of miners directly depends on the fulfillment of the plan and the volume of production. This is where the main roots of global emergency situations in mines are laid. Miners are desperate people, they often wanted to spit on the dangerous concentration of methane in the face, wrapping the control sensors in quilted jackets, gluing them with tape and pouring water on them. The main thing is not to "cut off" the energy and to be able to continue to cut coal. And it's easy to understand their motivation: you need to feed families, dress and teach children, live a generally normal life. But this, unfortunately, is fraught with very dangerous consequences ...

And of course, in principle, our President V.V. Putin, who demanded the elimination of output-dependent payments. But this is not the only solution to the problem. Payments from generation cannot be completely ruled out, it is simply impossible. Miners will lose all motivation to work. You just need to make the salary dependent on the output, but to a lesser extent. For example, you get some kind of fixed part, not dependent on anything. And if he fulfilled and even exceeded the plan, then the premium can be 50-100% of the fix in the amount proportional to the amount of overfulfillment. As it has always been in the mines.

Then the miners will be happy and the management will be happy. And there will be an opportunity for the mines to exist, since today the coal industry is actually thrown out to survive. There is no government support. The managers and owners of coal enterprises themselves have to solve all the issues of maintaining and developing mines and the entire infrastructure.

However, this is only one side of the issue. A separate topic is the generally low wages of miners . Even in Kuzbass, the main "stoker" of the country, the average salary of miners exceeds the average salary in the region by only 1.6-1.7 times, and even less throughout Russia - 1.3-1.4 times.

Whereas in the USSR the average salary of miners was 4-5 or more times higher than that of workers in ordinary professions. This is how the country paid for the most difficult heroic labor of miners, which was the basis of the entire economy of our great power. You can remind the reader of the role of COAL in the Great Patriotic War, when the Great Victory was forged thanks to miners (of course, metallurgists, machine builders, and people of many other professions).

By the way, for comparison, today the average salary of miners in the United States is about $ 6 thousand per month (about 420 thousand rubles), and in Germany - about 3.5 thousand euros (300 thousand rubles), which is almost 5 -7 times more than in Russia. Hence, the attitude towards miners is formed ...

It is clear that no one needs the heroism of the miners now. It is believed that it is their own business where to work. If you do not want to work, leave your native land and go to Moscow, St. Petersburg or any other large city where there will always be work. But how to give up everything that you live for? How to abandon your roots, your relatives and friends, your favorite work, to which you have become accustomed from childhood, which your grandfather, father and other relatives have always been doing. Miners are known to have the largest family dynasties. When you can't even imagine life differently. When your team is your family. After all, hard work especially strongly unites people who are not afraid of any trials, even the struggle with power. Suffice it to recall the powerful strikes of miners that shook the country in the late 80s - early 90s, about which we wrote in the press at one time (for example, in the newspaper Izvestia, 1989, no. 209). To prevent this from happening again, you need an understanding of the deep causes of these phenomena, and, first of all, awareness of them at the state level. We need a clear and working control system, which can only be ensured by the state , which, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 7), is responsible for the health and life of people. This is the only guarantee of success and development of the coal industry.

By the way, I myself am a mining engineer, I have worked in mines for about 5 years and I know firsthand the problems of miners. My grandfather Zhdankin Ivan Ivanovich, after dispossession of kulaks in 1930, was exiled to Karaganda, raised the "coal stoker" No. 3. My grandfather worked as a coal miner. First, he mined coal with a pickaxe, and then with a jackhammer. It was completely dumped twice in the face, but it was dug up, and he worked there again. However, after the second blockage, the grandfather was given a disability and sent to "light" work, where he began to work as a hauler - he rolled trolleys with coal and rock to the trunk for delivery (!?). And it was called easy labor ... My father is also a mining engineer, like my brother. They are full holders of the Miner's Glory badge of 3 degrees.

Zhdankin Nikolay Aleksandrovich - mining engineer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor of NUST MISIS (former), President of the Consulting Company Regul-Consult LLC.