OJSC Granit-Kuznechnoye has presented a new crushing and screening plant supplied by the US company Telsmith. The main feature of the plant is its mobility. The project investment amounted to about 200 mln roubles. The new plant was presented by Sergei Doroshchuk, Head of the Priozersky District Administration, Alexei Yushkov, Head of Aggregates Department of OJSC LSR Group, and Vassily Kostritsa, CEO of OJSC Granit-Kuznechnoye.

Company guests and journalists were introduced to nearly the entire cycle of crushed granite production from the primary rock crushing in the quarry to the final product – crushed rock of 5-20 mm fraction.  The tour started with the new plant currently placed near the Rovnoye deposit. The whole assembly and gears of the plant are mounted not on a stationary foundation as is customary but on a special chassis thus reducing the costs of transportation and construction of capital facilities.

According to Vassily Kostritisa, CEO of Granit-Kuznechnoye, the launching of the plant will help to avoid a shortage of crushed stone stressed by some of the experts. "The bulk of our products are supplied to St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region which means that almost all of the crushed stone produced by the new plant will de intended for construction sites in our area."

Moreover, this technology allows to place the crushing and screening plant at any quarry and promptly relocate it from one deposit to another thus providing for more efficient utilization of the resource base while operating the deposit containing the rock fraction required by the market.

The visitors were also quite impressed by the portable primary crushing plant and the reclaimed quarry of Perkon-Lampi. According to the information available, Granit-Kuznechnoye is the only company in the whole of the Leningrad Region rehabilitating spent quarries. By now the original landscape that existed here before extraction began has been practically restored. Fir trees have been planted on the ex-quarry site with grass already growing all around. In just a few more years only documents could prove that once there was a quarry here.

Head of the Priozyorsky District Administration Sergei Doroshchuk who attended the ceremony stressed the important role played by Granit-Kuznechnoye in the economic development of the Priozyorsky District, as well as the wide scope of its social activities. Being a local economic mainstay, OJSC Granit-Kuznechnoye is keen on social work with its social programmes launched not only in-house but in the Township of Kuznechnoye too. So just over the past year the Temple of St. George the Victory-bearer was built in Kuznechnoye, and its main square was renovated. Jointly with the municipal authorities, the company has been addressing various issues dealing construction, utilities and transport needs. The company has been regularly supporting the township infrastructure such as the kindergarten, secondary school and community recreation centre.

And on October 15, Granit-Kuznechnoye sponsored a minifootball tournament for the students of the Kuznechenskaya Secondary School. The winners in the competition went to Moscow to pull for the Russian national team in the legendary Russia vs. England match. 

For reference

OAO Granit-Kuznechnoye is one of the largest crushed granite producers in Northwest Russia. The company operates three quarries in Priozersky District, the Leningrad Region.  Crushed granite is produced by four plants with two of them foreign-made being the most advanced ones.

The company was founded in 1952. Since 2000, OAO Granit-Kuznechnoye forms part of LSR Group.

The total proved reserves of the company deposits are approx. 360 mln. cub. m. It employs over 1,200 people.

In 2006, the company produced 3.6 mln. cub. m of crushed stone. The key market of its products is Northwest Russia. 

OJSC LSR Group is a vertically integrated diversified company founded in 1993. Its core business areas are building materials, construction and real estate development. The Group includes enterprises for extraction and processing of aggregates (sand,crushed rock),  production and transportation of building materials, and housing construction – from mass market large-panel housing to elite residential property built after designs made by leading domestic and foreign architects.

LSR Group has enterprises and offices in St. Petersburg, Moscow, a number of cities in the Leningrad Region, in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine and Germany. LSR Group employs nearly 15,000 people.

According to the audited consolidated IFRS results of OJSC LSR Group, its earnings in 2006 amounted to 21.1 billion rubles, a 61% increase over 2005, pre-tax income in 2006 reached 1.76 billion rubles, and net profit stood at 1.1 billion rubles.

In July 2007, Moody’s Investors Service assigned a B1 rating to LSR Group; outlook – stable.