Metropolitan John consecrated the Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Planttranslated

With the blessing of Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol, on September 10, the Head of the Belgorod Metropolis, Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol visited the Lebedinsky Mining and Processing Plant. The archpastor, co-served by Bishop Abel of Gubkin and Grayvoron, performed a prayer service before the icon of the patroness of miners, the Holy Great Martyr Barbara. The service was held on board the world's largest non-combustible mineral quarry. Lebedinsky GOK is the flagship of the Russian mining industry, located in the city of Gubkin. The plant's quarry is the largest in the world: its depth exceeds 500 meters and its diameter is about five kilometers. Ore reserves here are estimated at 3.9 billion tons. The company is twice listed in the Guinness Book of Records - as the owner of the largest quarry for the extraction of non-combustible minerals and as the developer of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly deposit, which is unique in terms of reserves.

The plant is the only producer of hot briquetted iron in Russia and the CIS, annually producing about 20 million tons of iron ore concentrate. It is on the edge of this gigantic quarry, where, in the figurative expression of the bishop, “everything could fit...