Translated material
Roof stability
Dmitry Medvedev showed knowledge of mining
The President of Russia recommended yesterday that amendments to legislation introducing mandatory degassing of coal mines be sent for revision. The bill, which the State Duma adopted shortly after the May tragedy at the Raspadskaya mine claimed the lives of more than 90 people, seemed to the head of state to be insufficiently developed and did not create a guarantee of labor safety for miners.48% of Russian coal mines are methane-hazardous. The only document regulating the implementation of safety measures today is the “Methodological recommendations on the procedure for degassing coal mines.” In world practice, the permissible threshold for the gas hazard of coal seams is legally established. This approach obliges mine owners to remove the bulk of gas from the mine opening before starting mining operations, in other words, to intensively ventilate it.
Let us recall that the explosion at Raspadskaya occurred on the night of May 9, and already on May 21, amendments to the laws “On state regulation in the field of mining and use of coal, on the features of social protection of coal industry workers” and “On subsoil”, which had been in place before in the State Duma for more than two years, were adopted in the first reading. Even the opposition of mine owners, who argued that the mandatory introduction of such expensive measures would lead to massive bankruptcy of coal companies, did not help. However, as IFD Capital analyst Olga Mitrofanova points out, the coal lobby, unlike, for example, the metallurgical lobby, has never been considered particularly strong.
It was expected that the amendments would be adopted in the second reading next Friday, but it is now clear that this will not happen. As stated in the Kremlin's explanatory note, the conditions for safe mining operations in the document are limited only to degassing, although safety is also determined by the stability of the roof and walls of mine workings, the concentration of coal dust, the possibility of ignition of coal and other factors. In addition, the inclusion of degassing conditions in the license does not yet have retroactive effect and, accordingly, will not affect companies that already hold licenses. In this regard, the President proposes to provide in the bill another mechanism obliging the licensee to take degassing measures promptly.
But the main complaint is related to the cost of these measures. Dmitry Medvedev demanded to assess the extent to which the practical implementation of the provisions of the bill will affect the profitability of organizations. The conclusion states that “degassation is a rather costly undertaking that requires a more in-depth financial and economic analysis.” Therefore, before further work on the law, deputies must find out whether these innovations will lead to “an increase in social tension due to downtime or closure of mines due to degassing.”
“In general, the situation in the industry is very difficult. And any additional expenses could seriously complicate the situation of companies,” Bank of Moscow analyst Yuri Volov told a Vremya Novostei correspondent. Moreover, we are talking not only about the owners of coal mines, but also about ordinary miners. It is no secret that miners themselves often block methane sensors so as not to stop work. At the same Raspadskaya, the tariff part of the salary was 45%, and the bonus part was 65%. “Strict adherence to technology is a production cost that is written off due to lost bonuses in workers’ wages. Therefore, the production technology is not followed. With modern forms of wages, none of the workers are interested in observing production technology,” this is an excerpt from the address of the participants in the rally in memory of the fallen Raspadskaya miners, held on June 16 in Omsk.
However, it is still necessary to improve safety in closed coal mining. The state cannot calmly watch as its own citizens risk their lives every day in order to feed their families. But in this case, the state must ensure that increased security does not come at a cost. “It is obvious that the adoption of this law will affect the profitability of production, and, it seems to me, the state should legislatively prevent the possible shifting of costs for degassing and lost profits caused by downtime to miners, since their salary consists of the main part and a bonus for production . In any case, I do not believe that the revised version will cause a significant increase in social tension, since, firstly, the law is aimed at the safety of the miners themselves, and secondly, the state needs to legally establish financial guarantees for miners during possible downtime of the mine,” - Andrei Lobazov, an analyst at IFC Metropol, explained to Vremya Novostey.
There are various mechanisms through which the state can compensate mine owners for necessary but expensive investments. According to Olga Mitrofanova, amendments to the tax legislation regarding the natural resources extraction tax (MET), according to which coal miners will be provided with tax deductions for expenses spent on improving technological production conditions, should become this compensation. These amendments have already been adopted by the State Duma in the first reading last Friday. According to Vremya Novostei, today these proposals will be discussed at a meeting dedicated to the restoration of the Raspadskaya mine, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold in Novokuznetsk.