As part of the city’s environmental programme and efforts to improve the industrial sites of the plant’s workshops, Metinvest’s Ingulets GZK has treated 10 hectares of land, where allergenic weeds were discovered, with herbicides.
Preventing the spread of quarantine plants at Ingulets GZK is a key task in the plant’s annual environmental work plan. These efforts begin in the spring and continue throughout the entire growing season to prevent the weeds from flowering, seeding, and spreading further. The plant primarily uses mechanical methods, such as mowing, to control the weeds. However, in areas with high concentrations of quarantine plants, including ragweed and other allergenic weeds, chemical treatments are used for a more lasting effect.
This spring, following a thorough survey of areas where quarantine weeds were detected, specialists applied a broad-spectrum herbicide. This chemical is safe for people and animals but effectively blocks the growth of harmful plants, ultimately killing both their above-ground parts and roots. The treatment was carried out in several key areas, including the production preparation workshop near the supply and equipment warehouses, the quarry parking site, around the crushing plant, at checkpoint No. 2, and on the industrial sites of the technical water and sludge management workshop. In total, the herbicide solution was applied to 10 hectares of land.
"At Metinvest’s mining and processing plants, we take the issue of quarantine plants very seriously, particularly those found on industrial sites and in the buffer zones. For Kryvyi Rih, located in the steppe zone, the spread of allergenic weeds like ragweed, which can harm people’s health, is an annual challenge. Together with the local community, the company’s mining enterprises are focusing on reducing the spread of harmful plants and finding new effective and environmentally friendly methods to combat them," commented Natalia BILOZOROVA, head of the environmental protection department at Metinvest’s consolidated ore mining and processing plant.
