President of ALROSA ordered disciplinary sanctions following the accident at Mir

Sergey Ivanov, President of ALROSA signed an order on disciplinary sanctions against the company's executives who violated the requirements of industrial safety, which contributed to the accident at the Mir mine on August 4, 2017. The director and chief engineer of the company’s Mirny Mining Division were suspended from their positions with subsequent dismissal from the company.
On November 10, Rostekhnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision, announced the findings of a commission on technical investigation of the causes that had led to the accident at Mir. The results of the investigation were handed over to the President of ALROSA during his meeting with Alexey Aleshin, the head of Rostekhnadzor. The commission came to the conclusion that the accident was caused by a set of hydrogeological, technical and organizational factors. One of the main reasons was the anomalous hydrogeological complexity of the deposit due to a system of unfavorably underlying cracks in the structural fracture. Among the technical reasons, the commission listed a number of adopted design decisions. In particular, the project of "dry conservation" implemented for the mine’s quarry in the early 2000s did not take into account the possibility that ore and rocks could be washed out. In particular, the design organizations did not fully take into account the complex geological and hydrogeological features of the field. The commission also identified 16 officials responsible for violations of industrial safety requirements that had led to the accident. The management of ALROSA was requested by Rostekhnadzor to issue an order for the company specifying a full list of executives and their personal responsibility for the accident. In line with the order signed yesterday by Sergey Ivanov, the list of responsible persons was expanded to 24 people and included the top managers of the Mir mine, Mirny Mining Division, ALROSA and the Yakutniproalmaz Institute.
Following this order, Mikhail Lopatinsky, Director of the Mirny Mining Division and Alexander Kisilichin, its Chief Engineer were suspended from their positions with subsequent dismissal from the company for improper performance of their duties and weak operational supervision. The other responsible persons, including the company’s top managers, were reprimanded and penalized materially. The order also instructed to consider if Alexey Buxer, the chief of the Mir underground mine and Sergey Yekel, the mine’s chief engineer were matching their positions.
In addition, the order noted the improper execution of the existing legislative and other normative acts, as well as the company’s internal regulations by Alexander Chaadayev, who was in charge of the Yakutniproalmaz Institute at the time of the accident. This prevented to predict the danger during the mine’s operation. Alexander Chaadayev left the company and was replaced by Andrey Zelberg, the former head of the technical department of ALROSA. One of the main tasks for the new director of the institute will be to organize a comprehensive study and audit of the design solutions at all ALROSA’s facilities. In addition, he will be responsible for creating a system for forecasting risks that may arise in the future while developing mineral deposits.