Norkel launched Bystrinsky GOK in Transbaikalia

The opening of the Bystrinsky mining and processing plant took place in the Trans-Baikal Territory on October 31. The enterprise began start -up work. This is the second large copper production that has appeared in Russia since the beginning of the 1990s.

The symbolic button was pressed by the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia Denis Manturov, the first vice-president of Norilsk Nickel Sergey Dyachenko, the presidential envoy to the Siberian Federal District, Sergey Chanipolo, the governor of Transbaikalya Natalya Zhdanova.

According to the Norilsk Nickel press service, the work of the plant in the commissioning mode will last several months, its transition to a full operating mode is provided by mid-2018, and access to the design capacity at the end of 2019.

“We are proud that in just four years we managed to carry out the construction of a“ plant from scratch ”, comparable in scale with the construction sites of the industrialization period,” commented the event of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin. “For us, this is not just a new asset, but also the ability to put the most advanced technologies in practice, both industrial and in the field of social policy, ecology and human capital management.”

Bystrinsky GOK is located in the Gazimursky-Zavodsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory, 350 km from Chita and 90 km from China. The plant was created on the basis of the Bystrinsky golden -haired field, the reserves of which amount to 343 million tons of ore - will provide enterprise loading for more than 30 years. The plant will engage in the extraction and enrichment of ores and produce copper, gold -containing and magnetite concentrates.

Norilsk Nickel has been building a plant since 2013, investing 90 billion rubles in it. Sberbank is the bank-creditor of the project. After reaching the design capacity of 10 million tons of ore per year, the GOK will be the third large Norilsk Nickel production asset.

“This project is important in that jobs are being created for residents of the region - more than 2 thousand - at the enterprise and 1.5 thousand seats - in outsouring. These are tax revenues in the revenue part of the budget of the Trans -Baikal Territory. The actual revenues to the consolidated budget of the Trans -Baikal Territory LLC Bystrinskoye LLC in 2015 amounted to 23.7 million rubles, in 2017 382 million rubles of tax deductions were expected. The dynamics are obvious, ”said the head of the region, Natalya Zhdanova. - And besides, a large amount of social support. Our agreement on social partnership with the Norilsk Nickel company is signed for a long period of time. ”

In total, in the first 10 years of work, the authorities expect 17 billion rubles of tax revenues to Transbaikalia. ”

According to RBC, Bystrinsky GOK is the first production from scratch in the post-Soviet history of Norilsk Nickel and, according to Akra, the second large copper production that appeared in Russia since the beginning of the 1990s (after the Mikheevsky GOK of the Russian Copper Company). Norilsk Nickel owns a control package in the project, 36.66% belongs to the CIS Natural Resources Fund investment fund Vladimir Potanin and Grigory Berezkin, another 13.3% of Chinese Highland Fund.

The location of the plant simplifies the delivery of products to China, which is the world's largest copper and iron ore consumer. In August, as reported by Reuters, Norkel strengthened the trading team in his Beijing office, hiring local traders for the marketing of copper and magnet concentrates received on the Bystrinsky GOK.

Norilsk Nickel expects to conclude the first Off-Take-contract (an agreement on the sale or purchase of goods that have not yet been produced) in 2018, after the first technological tests of the Bystrinsky GOK products are received, Sergei Dyachenko said. He did not disclose the volume of products that the Chinese shareholder of the Highland Fund project can redeem under this agreement.

In 2018, Norkel expects to produce 28-30 thousand tons of copper concentrate on the GOK, 140 thousand gold ounces in concentrate and 1 million tons of magnetite (iron ore) concentrate.