OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel has announced the start of design works on Bugdainskiy Mining and Concentration Plant. The contract with designing company was signed on December 9th 2011.
On August 1st 2011, the company sent an official request to seven leading designing and engineering companies to provide technical and commercial proposals for the design of Bugdainskiy MCP. On October 11th 2011, CJSC TOMC engineering was chosen the winner.
Delivery of project documentation to the client is carried out in separate stages and will be completed by November 2012. The deadline for delivering project documentation after it passed the state expertise is May 10th 2013.
The operations at Bugdainskiy MPC are expected to start at the end 2016 and in 2017 the production is forecasted to reach design capacity. Additionally, it is planned to construct 36 kilometers of railways and roads which will provide access to the MCP.
Bugdainskiy MCP will produce 16 million tonnes of ore a year and process it into molybdenum concentrate, containing approximately 9000 tonnes of molybdenum.
Mr Yuri Filippov, acting First Deputy General Director of MMC Norilsk Nickel, said that "Molybdenum is an interesting metal, just like nickel it is primarily used for alloy steel production. Although these metals are not interchangeable, we have established relationships with the industry's key buyers, which give us a reason to believe that we will be able to market molybdenum efficiently. Molybdenum was also recently introduced to the London Metal Exchange, which improves pricing transparency, is beneficial for the overall quality of the company's financial and economic analysis and improves liquidity."
Construction of Bugdainskiy MPC will be the second stage of implementation of the Company’s project in Chita. The operations will start at the neighboring Bystrinskoe deposit first. Between RUB 32 and RUB 34 million will be invested in construction of Bystrinskoe MPC and building access roads for it.
Commissioning of the MPC is also planned for 2016. The ore production is expected to be at 10 million tonnes a year, the ore will be further processed to produce 62,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate, 6.3 tonnes of gold in concentrate and 2.1 million tonnes of iron in iron concentrate.
The investments associated with developing mineral resources of Zabaikalskiy region are carried out within the framework of the public-private partnership scheme. The partners are: Investment Fund of the Russian Federation and MMC Norilsk Nickel. In total, RUB 104.597 billion will be invested in the projects. The funds allocated by MMC Norilsk Nickel will amount to over RUB 80 billion, out of which RUB 72 358.04 million will be allocated towards independent development of two deposits of Bystrinskoe and Bugdainskoe.
