The Ural State Mining University and the Krasnoye Sormovo shipyard have agreed to develop technologies for mining minerals in flooded mines. These will include floating and submersible platforms, as well as unmanned submarines.
The Nizhny Novgorod plant will handle the submarine's construction. The Ural University will develop the internal elements and engineering solutions for the technology of mining minerals in flooded mines.
Russia currently lacks new underwater technologies for breaking and processing solid materials. However, USMU has been working since 2023 on a technology that will allow for the extraction of minerals in flooded mines and quarries. Specialists from the newly opened High School of Mining Engineers at USMU will also be able to join the process.
Work on this project will be carried out under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia's "Priority-2030" program (national project "Science and Universities"). Such technologies are very important for Russia's technological and industrial sovereignty.
Statistics on underground mining operations show that in global practice, by the beginning of the 2020s, almost a third of open-pit and underground mines had been flooded along with unworked reserves. This process is particularly evident in the Ural region. The Verkhnekamsk deposit has lost more than half of its mines due to flooding. More than 120 mines extracting copper, gold, and polymetals have been flooded without completing their development.
The extraction of minerals underground and underwater is planned to be entrusted to artificial intelligence. It will be able to analyze processes, warn of dangers, and calculate the best solutions for extraction.