According to Mr Oleksandr Sorokin Director General of Skhidny ore mining and processing enterprise, the reconstruction of a hydrometallurgical plant is estimated at UAH 400 million.

He said that "The reconstruction is assessed at some UAH 400 million."

He said that currently the processing capacity of the hydrometallurgical plant is twice more than the volumes of raw materials supplied to the plant.

He added that "We'll slightly reconstruct the Zhovti Vody plant and load it in full."

Mr Sorokin said that the enterprise does not plan to build a hydrometallurgical plant near the Novokostiantynivske uranium field but it plans to build a heap leaching facility.

He said that "The idea is the following: high grade concentrate will be shipped to Zhovti Vody and one third of extracted concentrate will be processed at the heap leaching facility here, so one third of uranium will be produced here."

Mr Sorokin added that industrial waste will be deposited back to the depth of the mining. He said that "On one hand, we'll optimize the process and minimize expenses, and on the other hand we do not increase ecological burden on the territory of Kirovohrad region."

(Sourced from Interfax)