Blyavinsky quarry

The Blyavinsky quarry is the oldest in Orenburg region. Its area today is about 45 hectares. It originated on the site of the Blyavinsky deposit of copper-pyrite ores, which was discovered in the 20s of the last century. A special feature of the Blyavinsky deposit is the relatively high copper content in the rock. Mining in the quarry was carried out in various ways: first, tunnels were laid, then open-pit mining was carried out, later with the help of microorganisms (by bacterial leaching). Ore mining was carried out underground from 1934 to 1954. The length of the mine's communications was 28 km. Daily productivity averaged up to 2,500 tons of copper ore. In 1954, they started open-pit mining. The diameter of the upper part of the quarry was about 700 m, and the depth was 220 m. In 1972, after mining the ore reserves, the quarry was closed. In total, about 20 million tons of ore were mined at the Blyavinskoye deposit from 1934 to 1971.

In Soviet times, the Blyavinsky quarry was considered one of the largest in the Orenburg region. But in order to extract minerals, the workers had to put in a lot of effort and patience. That's because they did most of the work manually. They were allocated only one excavator. And the living conditions could not be called comfortable. The workers lived in tents and dugouts, and then barracks were built for them. Until 1954, the ore was mined underground. And then they began to behave in an open way. The daily production volume was 2,500 tons of copper ore. It was supplied to the Karabash plant and other plants in the Urals. To date, the development of the Blyavinsky copper-crusted deposit has been completed, but ore mining is still underway in neighboring territories.