Rubber expansion joints by DITEC to be used at the MIR mine

13.09.2016

In July 2016, Kronstadt Ltd. supplied a large lot of rubber-cord expansion joints manufactured by Ditec. These items will be installed in the water lines of a cooling water transport system under construction at the Mir mine (Yakutia, Russia).

The industrial mining of diamonds has been taking place at the Mir kimberlite pipe since 1957. Until 2001, it was only open-cut mining in the pit more than 500m deep and 1km in diameter. As the pit grew deeper, the mining method was changed to underground, and starting in 2009 it has only been carried out in the Mir underground mine. The capacity of this mine amounts to 1M tons of ore a year.

Nowadays, the mining area is being widely expanded which requires constant delivery of cooling water in large volumes to the site. The estimated mining time of the place is 50 years, that is why installation of cooling systems needs high-quality equipment with long operation life. 

Service life of maintenance-free rubber-cord expansion joints by Ditec is about 20 years. They were designed to withstand and remain functional after sudden circulation breaks, vacuum forming, and further forceful circulation recovery.

Thanks to using modern and durable expansion joints in the cooling water transport systems, the mining at the site becomes more effective, thus helping Russia to keep leading positions in the rough diamonds market.