I have already been to look for huge abandoned excavators at the Morozovsky quarry in the Kirovograd region. This time, the trip will be to the Kostiantynivsky coal mine, not far from Morozovsky. And here’s what I found!
The history of the Kostiantynivsky quarry
The Kostiantynivsky quarry is one of the youngest quarries in Ukraine, where coal was mined using open-pit methods. The fact is that fossil fuels are not buried very deep here, so there is no point in building a mine, and mining is carried out openly—a layer of earth is cut away, and then coal extraction begins.
The Kostiantynivsky coal mine was commissioned in 1987 and annually produced over 1 million tons of coal, which is a good indicator.
This required huge machines, which are still here today.
Walking excavators, dumpers, transport bridges — all this equipment of incredible size and weight, which is difficult for an ordinary person to imagine, is used in production. There were also many auxiliary machines and mechanisms, as well as infrastructure.
Equipment used in production:
- ЕРШР-1600 and ЕРШРД-5250 excavators.
- 3 ЕШ 6/45 walking draglines.
- German excavators – DS-1000 and DS-1500, taken away after World War II.
- ОШР-5000 walking mound former.
- German transport and mound bridge, taken from Germany in 1945.
Kostiantynivsky quarry now
After the company went bankrupt, most of the equipment and infrastructure was removed, but some items remained. It is difficult to say why they could not be evacuated, but perhaps the flooding was too rapid, and dismantling equipment of this scale takes time. So now it remains in the water.
What we saw was a large rotary excavator and (possibly) an OSHR-5000 scraper (experts, please correct me if I am wrong). The excavator extracts coal, then transfers it to a conveyor, which transports it along a belt to where it is needed.
The ERSHRD-5250 is a rotary excavator on tracks. With its 20 buckets on the disc, it can literally cut 5,250 tons of rock per hour. This machine weighs more than 4,400 tons and is as tall as a 20-story building — 51 meters. It was manufactured by the Mariupol-based company Azovmash.
Next to it stands a machine with a huge boom. If it is an OSHR-5000, then its dimensions are also impressive: the boom is 95 meters long and over 30 meters high.
You can also see the roofs of flooded buildings here. It so happened that the water is just a little higher than them.
This equipment is buried here forever…
Emotions of the Kostiantynivsky quarry
It is difficult to convey the emotions from what you see, especially from the size of the excavators. And the excitement begins even before you reach the quarry. When you drive across the field, a few kilometers away you can see the masts of the excavators rising above the edge. When you stand on the cliff in front of the water, the excavators don’t seem that big because they are far away, and you want to get closer to feel the full power of this technology.
There are few visitors here, and it is very quiet. Sometimes you can hear birds, and when the wind blows and there are waves on the water, the water hits the metal and creates a characteristic sound. A sound of despair and decay.
These giants will never again work and contribute to society with their labor, even though they could.
How to get to the Konstantinovsky open pit mine
Konstantinovsky open-pit mine – map.
The entrance to the quarry is located in the village of Yagidne. This village remains only on the map, because in 2001 its population was only 22 people. So it is best to look for the village of Berezivka in the Pryiutivska community on the map.
However, it is not worth driving through the enterprise’s checkpoint — there are security guards there and no one will let strangers through. In this case, you need to drive north to the village of Dibrovy. Before reaching it, turn into a field and follow the dirt roads to the quarry. At some point, the road will lead you right into the middle of a crop field. We walked through this section on foot so as not to damage the plants.
Next, you will need to leave the field and walk across sand dunes covered with thick grass to reach the cliff by the water. Here, you will find abandoned giants standing as close to the tree as possible.