Lebedinsky GOK DRI Plant

This article is part of the Global Steel Plant Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

GEM Wiki Main Page Currently operating steel plants All steel plants Steel decarbonization research List of steel producers World Steel Association Steelmaking technology Green steel projects

Lebedinsky GOK DRI Plant (Лебединский горно-обогатительный комбинат (Russian)), also known as LGOK HBI, is a direct reduced iron (DRI) steel plant operating in Gubkin, Belgorod, Russia.

Location

The map below shows the exact location of the plant in Gubkin, Belgorod, Russia:

Loading map...

{"type":"HYBRID","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":14,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":51.261995,"lon":37.654622,"icon":""}]}

• Location: Promzona, Gubkin-11, Gubkin, Belgorod Oblast, Russia, 309191
• Coordinates (WGS 84): 51.261995, 37.654622 (exact)

Background

Lebedinsky GOK DRI Plant is the largest plant in Russia and the CIS in iron ore mining and materials. It is also the only producer of HBI in Russia and the CIS. The first DRI unit started operating in 1999, reaching designed capacity in 2001.

In September 2024, Metalloinvest JSC, the plant's owner, announced plans to boost its HBI production from the current 4 million tons to 20 million tons per year as part of a project in collaboration with China. The company revealed these plans during the intergovernmental commission meeting.

Environmental and safety violations

On August 6, 2021, the excavator driver died due to the explosion in the quarry of Lebedinsky GOK. The cause has been established as negligence of the chief engineer of the drilling and blasting department, who violated industrial safety requirements, was responsible for carrying out a mass explosion and did not organize the safe conduct of blasting operations, did not ensure the destruction of the remains of explosives.

On July 15, 2024, a collision of two railway traction units caused the death of one employee and left another with injuries.

In 2024, 13 employees were fined 100,000 roubles for labor safety violations.

Plant Details

Table 1: General Plant Details

Phase	Plant status	Announced date	Construction date	Start date	Workforce size	Iron ore source
Main plant	Operating	–	1967	1971	9459	Lebedinskiy and Stoylo-Lebedinskiy mines of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly
Expansion	Announced	2021	–	–	–	Lebedinskiy and Stoylo-Lebedinskiy mines of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly

Table 2: Ownership and Parent Company Information

Phase	Parent company	Parent company GEM ID	Owner	Owner company PermID	Owner company GEM ID
Main plant	YueSeM Holding Company LLC [100.0%]	E100000131085 [100%]	Lebedinskiy GOK AO	5000075458	E100000130933

Table 3: Process and Products

Phase	Steel product category	Steel products	Main production equipment	Detailed production equipment
Main plant	crude	HBI (DRI)	DRI	3 Midrex DRI plants (Midrex 2 (1.4 MTPA, began in 2007), Midrex 38 (1.8 MTPA, began in 2017))
Expansion	crude	HBI (DRI)	DRI	1 additional Midrex DRI plant (HBI-4) 2.08 MTPA

Table 4: Crude Steel Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*
Main plant	operating
Expansion	announced

Table 5: Crude Iron Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*	Sponge iron/DRI capacity	Nominal iron capacity (total)
Main plant	operating	4700 TTPA	4700 TTPA
Expansion	announced	2080 TTPA	2080 TTPA

Table 6: Upstream Products Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

Phase	Sinter	Pellets
Main plant	22063 TTPA	8968 TTPA
Expansion	–	–

Table 7: Actual Crude Iron Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	DRI Production	Total (all routes)
2020	4638 TTPA	4638 TTPA
2021	4500 TTPA	4500 TTPA
2022	–	–

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Steel Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.

Resources

• Company website
• Wikipedia