During the five-day field session, students receiving higher education under the master's programmes "Mining" and "Mineral Processing Technologies" of Metinvest Polytechnic visited the crushing and ore processing plants of Metinvest's Central GOK.
First-year master's students got acquainted with production processes, processing chains, processes of enrichment of magnetite quartzite and pelletizing of concentrate. They visited crushing and pelletizing plants, dewatering and roughing concentrate finishing sections, as well as a laboratory. The field session also included participation in workshop sessions together with leading specialists of the enterprise.
"Everyone is very pleased with the results of this field session," says Konstiantyn LEVCHENKO, Associate Professor of the Department of Mining at Metinvest Polytechnic. "Our students were able to see with their own eyes how advanced enrichment technologies worked. These include, among other things, the increase in iron content due to fine screening, the use of ceramic filters for dewatering, the operation of magnetic dry separation, etc. These practices were particularly interesting for our experienced students, and it was evident in the number of questions they asked – really striving to understand the intricacies of the production processes".
Among the future masters is the Deputy Head of the Open Pit Mine for Technology and Quality of InGOK Oleksandr SMIRNOV: "I am a geologist by my first education, a miner by my second one, and now I am studying enrichment. This is a new and very interesting area for me. At Central GOK, we started with the crushers of the crushing plant, went through the entire chain to transportation for enrichment, from grinding and separation to filtration. During the workshop session in the laboratory, we looked at how the magnetic analysis of crushed ore was carried out at the analyser. It was interesting to get acquainted with the new processes, compare them with ours, Ingulets ones, see the latest grinding technologies and discuss the advantages and features of each one with the specialists".
The specialists of the plant discussed with the future masters topical issues and progressive achievements in the field of processing and enrichment of minerals.
The operator of DF-1 crusher at Northern GOK Ivan ZAYATS followed in the footsteps of his father, the enricher, and therefore decided to get a second higher education. During the field session, he paid attention to everything – from production technologies to the organization of safety at the sites.
"Practice is always more interesting, so I was waiting for the field session. This is an opportunity to expand your horizons, to see what is not available at our plant. I noted many small but important differences, in particular in my profession. The experts of Central GOK told interesting stories and competently answered the questions. As for the production processes, there was something to be happy and surprised about. I learned a lot of new things. I compare how I received my first higher education after school (Master of Metallurgy), and now it is heaven and earth. When you've already got experience at the enterprise, you have a completely different attitude to studying. This experience allows you to discuss technologies and advanced developments with the specialists almost on an equal footing. It was really fruitful and useful".
