Reuters cited Mr Andrei Kozitsyn CEO of Urals Mining and Metals Company of Russia as saying that the company plans to finish building its second refinery in the Q4 of 2011.

Last year, UMMC said that it had decided to postpone until 2012 to 2014 its plan to build the refinery=, which would increase the firm's capacity by 37% to 500,000 tonnes per year. It had earlier planned to increase capacity by 2010.

Mr Kozitsyn said that UMMC planned to raise cathode copper output in 2010 by 20% from 2009 to 370,000 tonnes in line with its earlier target of 356,918 tonnes.

Privately owned UMMC estimates its investments for 2010 at USD 1.6 billion, 70% of which will be channelled to develop copper and other metals deposits in the Urals and in Siberia.

(Sourced from Reuters)