Russian Copper Company, CJSC is completing its design of the construction of the Mikheevsky mining and processing plant, which is scheduled to begin operating in late 2013.

Total project cost is estimated at USD 650 million. An open-pit mine capable of producing 18 million tons of green ore per year and a processing facility will be built at the mining and processing plant. The company press office told RusBusinessNews that there are also plans to construct electricity and gas lines, auxiliary facilities and administrative/amenity and residential complexes.

The Mikheevskoe porphyry copper ore deposit is one of the fifty largest copper deposits in the world with 400 million tons of mineable ore including copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, and rhenium. Russian Copper Company, CJSC will use the most advanced technology to mine and process the ore. The equipment for the processing plant is supplied by Metso and Outotec. The mining equipment has been purchased from Komatsu and Atlas Corpo.

With the mining and processing plant launched, the tax proceeds to the Chelyabinsk region will rise. Over the 9 months in 2011 the South Urals-based enterprises of Russian Copper Company have submitted the taxes of over RUB 2.8 billion with over RUB 344 billion proceeding to the regional budget.

(Sourced from RusBusinessNews)