By Jenna Cederberg
The Montana Standard
MISSOULA, Montana — The search for ore at the third-largest gold mine in the world — located in a subarctic, far eastern region of remote Russia — goes on 24 hours a day.
Surface mining operations began recently at the 16,000-acre Natalka mine located in Siberia, hundreds of miles from the coastal Russian city of Magadan. The gold found there is precious enough to push production nonstop around the clock, although infrastructure to support crews is almost nonexistent and the average winter temperature is negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s primitive, it’s cold, it’s tough,” said Brian Sheridan, Modern Machinery Co. president.
As the mine’s main supplier of heavy equipment, Missoula-based Modern recently began shipping millions of dollars worth of giant bulldozers, excavators and 240-ton haul trucks to Natalka.