SST Group Warms Russia’s Copper Heart

SST Group supplied a longline heating system to the Udokan Copper Project.

The Udokan copper deposit was discovered by Soviet geologists more than 70 years ago. It is located in Russia’s Kalar District, Trans-Baikal Territory, where freezing temperatures are the norm for nine months of the year and in the winter season the temperature can drop to minus 64 °C. The project site lies in a mountainous terrain surrounded by impenetrable taiga. The Udokan deposit concentrates one fifth of Russia's entire copper reserves — over 26 million tons. For a long time, Udokan’s copper reserves remained inaccessible. In August 2019, the Udokan Copper company began developing the deposit in order to launch the long-awaited commercial copper mining in 2022. 

At the moment, an open-pit mine is being built on the site, including access roads, trenches, benches, and stockpiling areas. In addition, Udokan Copper has started designing Phase 2 of the project, which will make it capable of processing up to 24 million tons of copper ore annually.

SST Group took part in one of the projects related to the development of the Udokan deposit. The company supplied longline systems for heating a 2.75 km water supply pipeline, as well as control cabinets, transformers, and other equipment. The combined length of the LLS heating cables was 4 km.  

Longline system based on the three-phase constant power heating cable LLS is intended for heating medium-length pipelines (up to 4 km) with single-source power supply. The system is simple and easy to install, energy efficient, electrically safe, and can be installed in both hazardous and non-hazardous areas.