Tag Archives: industrial

A few days ao we wrapped up our whirlwind there-and-back business dash to Kyrgyzstan, and to the Kumtor gold-ore mine and ore-processing complex (aka – a gold-extraction factory: the first time I’d ever come across the term). Why the holdup in getting these write-ups published? Simply because, when you visit industrial sites, you usually need to get a “yep, all good!” from the hosts before posting any photos – even though I hardly shoot anything inappropriate in the first place (my internal censor sees to that).

So. Kumtor…

First, it’s one of the main pillars of the country’s mining sector. Second, it’s one of the highest-altitude mining operations in the world (the second-highest, to be precise – behind the Yanacocha gold deposit in Peru, (also gold-ore)). And third, it’s just plain beautiful! Here are the pyramids they show you as you drive into the open pit:

The main pit – the one they showed us – is impossibly gigantic in size: 3.5km long, by 3km wide, and almost a kilometer deep measured from the ~highest point. And up on the loftiest peaks there are snow and glaciers. What a beauty! ->

Read on…

If you think we drove the alternative Kolyma route just out of curiosity… you’re absolutely right! Purely and solely out of curiosity. As it turned out though, some of our key partners have facilities there – we protect them from all sorts of cyber-nastiness, and they invite us to visit their operations. And the stars aligned so that one of Russia’s most golden enterprises – the Natalka gold-ore deposit – sits right by Route 44N-4 – the very alternative Kolyma route we were on. And here we are!

First up – a quick preview of coming attractions…

That’s the pit: one of the largest open-pit mines in the world.

And this is the finished product. About 75% gold, another 20-plus percent silver, plus assorted other stuff. These little bars weigh about 12 kilograms each, and from here they’re sent off for more thorough processing to produce practically pure gold – 999 fineness – and roughly the same purity of silver.

Between the pit and the finished product lies an incredibly complex technological cycle, which I’ll try to explain in a bit.

But first, a little history…

Read on…

The Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Angara River is a fascinating facility with an equally fascinating history. Construction began way back in 1954 – over 70 years ago. The first turbine unit came online in 1961, with the rest phased in gradually. For about eight years this power plant held the title of the world’s largest by installed capacity. (Fun fact: the crown then passed to another Soviet plant, the Krasnoyarsk HPP.) Anyway, here’s the Bratsk HPP:

A mightily powerful structure…

Read on…

As promised, I turn now to the Itaipu Dam – the third-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. It sits on the border between Brazil and Paraguay next to the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguaçu, which is also famous for the nearby Iguaçu Falls.

So let’s go for a walk inside the power plant – where they actually run excursions!…

A monumentally massive structure! The main part of the dam, where the machine hall, the turbines, and all the other key stuff is, runs to nearly 900 meters long!

Read on…

Elephant in the room alert!…

Did you notice how at the Nazarovsky open-pit mine we saw zero… coal? Like, we visited this massive coal-mining operation, but didn’t see a single chunk of the black stuff?! What?!

Here’s the deal. The insanely massive mechanism that moves sandy rock from one spot to another was the main attraction – by far. So much so that that’s where all our tour time went – gawping at it, mouths agape! But not to worry, for next up was another open-pit mine – Beryozovsky – where we finally got up close and personal with actual coal ->

The mining here works a bit differently because the layer of non-coal-containing rock (called “overburden”) is thinner – plus there’s way more coal: the coal seam here is up to 60 meters thick:

Read on…

Still back in July, still back in Krasnoyarsk Krai, next up on our tour of our dear heavy-industrial customers’ operations (after the Vostochny Gold Mine, the Boguchany Aluminum Smelting Plant, and the Boguchany Dam) – another two industrial giants – the Nazárovsky and Beryózovsky coal mines, which both belong to Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK). And just like at the other industrial facilities in Krasnoyarsk Krai, the way we were welcomed was as if we were royalty!

// I say royalty – but only… tee-totaling royalty! At every industrial site in Russia that I’ve visited over the past 10–15 years, a no-alcohol rule is strictly enforced – even for visitors. At every entrance (and exit (!)), employees/ workers/ miners all take a breathalyzer test; if the result‘s positive – immediate dismissal. Apparently, way back when this rule first came in (some time in last century), there was initial resistance: “Come on, how can we work without Alexey? He’s a drunkard, sure – but he’s still a master of his trade”. But no: other – sober – Alexeys were found to replace drunk Alexeys. So yes, back to our welcome: it was grand, but there was nothing stronger than fruit juice on the tables!

But enough of the industrial-site sobriety – let me show you the photos. They’re mixed in from both mines. Just to whet your appetite…

Photo 1, Nazarovsky:

Photo 2, Beryozovsky:

Here we go!…

Read on…

In yesterday’s post, I told you all about the operations at the Boguchany Aluminum Plant and its herculean appetite for electricity. I mentioned hydroelectric power in passing yesterday too – and not without good reason: for it’s this that satisfies this appetite at the aluminum plant. So off we popped, next door, to the Boguchany (hydroelectric) Dam…

And here she is – the beaut:

Read on…

Ok – you’ve had the gold post. Now for a post about another metal. But first – let me back up on the gold topic before segueing to today’s metal…

Two questions…

1. How much gold has humanity extracted in all of history?

2. How much gold‘s left in the Earth’s crust?

I’ll answer :)…

1. If we trust this source, the total amount of gold ever mined in the world is about 216,000 tons (with two-thirds of it mined after 1950!). All of it would fit into a cube measuring 22x22x22 meters. Basically, that’s about the size of a skinny six or seven-story cube-shaped building. Not that much really. And if you rolled all that precious metal into a ball, you’d get a sphere with a diameter of over 26 meters.

2. As for what remains, the numbers vary wildly. From 40,000 to 80,000 tons could still be dug up. But what happens after that? Well, obviously, we’d have to start bringing gold from the Moon, Mars, and Venus – if that’s even possible. But can you imagine how much that would cost?

So that’s the deal with gold. There’s not much left, and the price just keeps going up. Time to move on to another metal – and the industrial systems used to make it…

Here’s a 90%-automated industrial system, where, under the constant watch of digital telemetry and automatic “iron hands”, rectangular containers filled with gray liquid metal move along a conveyor belt. The liquid solidifies, the solidified bars are shaken out, stacked, and packaged by those same iron hands. And you could watch this process forever. So – what’s the metal?…

…Aluminum!

// Thus – we’ve jumped from box 79 (gold: Au) to 13 (aluminum: Al). in the periodic table.

Read on…

Hi folks!

Been a while, yes, but – you know: August! :). Meanwhile – rewind: back to July…

I’ve said this many times, but I’ll say it again: practically all industrial facilities – quarries and mines, power plants and factories, trucks and ships – are permeated through and through with all kinds of cyber-technologies. Indeed, the only non-digitized operation I’ve seen in the last 10 years or so is… the production of coconut oil in Fiji! :).

And since the prefix “cyber-” is, alas, increasingly more often followed by “-incident”, the combination of “cyber + security” is also becoming increasingly popular and in-demand – including at industrial facilities. It’s for this very reason we work closely with a wide variety of manufacturing companies. Over the years, such partnerships have become more and more based on trust – and with that comes our being invited to visit production sites to see how things actually work. And that’s what happened on our July trip to Krasnoyarsk (which I gave a brief summary of in my last post a month ago): We express our appreciation of and respect for our clients, and at the same time satisfy our own curiosity. After all, it truly is very, very interesting to see up close different lesser-known aspects of just how this world really ticks! Not on a TV screen sat in the office or on the couch at home – but in person and live: from a front-row seat and with full immersion, so to speak.

In just three days we managed to visit a whole five sites – the first of which was the Vostochny (“Eastern”) open-pit mine, where the company Polyus (pronounced pOl-yoos) mines gold. And since this quarry is one of the deepest in the world (more precisely, the second deepest – after the US’s Bingham Canyon Mine), it was doubly interesting to see this man-made wonder with our own eyes:

This is what the mine looks like from up above:

An impressive structure!

Read on…

Saint Petersburg walkabout – done.

Saint Petersburg roof-about – done.

Next up, Port Bronka (here) – the new, modern (i.e., deep enough for modern monster-sized ships) port of the city (not to be confused with the nearby older Great Port of St. Petersburg), which happens to be a customer of ours (for all things cybersecurity, naturally) and with which we have a great relationship…

Read on…