SYKTYVKAR, July 20. /TASS/. The RUSTITAN Group of Companies, the AEON Corporation jointly with the Komi Region and the Nenets Autonomous Region started the implementation of a mega project to develop the world’s biggest Pizhemsky deposit of titanium ores and silica sands, to build a railroad between Sosnogorsk and Indiga and to build the Indiga deep-water port, the Komi Region’s Governor Vladimir Uiba said on Tuesday.
"We’ve begun the implementation of a mega project to develop the Pizhemsky deposit of titanium ores and to build the Sosnogorsk - Indiga railroad, and the Indiga deep-water port," he said in a video address, available on the region’s VKontakte page.
The project’s implementation will give a mighty impetus to the social and economic development of Komi and the Russian Arctic zone, he added. The cluster will feature the region’s almost one in two municipalities - Ust-Tsilmsky, Troitsko-Pechorsky, Izhemsky, Sosnogorsky, Ukhta, Inta, Usinsk, and Vorkuta. The project will boost the region’s complex development, and will offer new enterprises and high-technology jobs. The Sosnogorsk - Indiga railroad will be an alternative transport route which will require development of railroad stations, depots, infrastructures, and will mean additional tax payments to the budget.
The design with necessary state examinations will take about two years, the construction - between two and three years. "The deposit’s resources are such that the enterprise will be working for more than 500 years," RUSTITAN’s Director General Alexey Novikov said. "Moreover, we will be able to increase its capacity manifold to supply the product to all the partners, both domestic and foreign. Despite the current conditions, we have foreign partners - Russia’s friends, with whom we have close contacts."
Investments in the vertically integrated mining and metallurgical complex at the Pizhemskoye deposit are estimated at 140 billion rubles ($2.5 billion) in 2022 prices. Those are investments in pits, processing factories, a chemical and metallurgical plant and their infrastructures. The InfraVEB Company (of the VEB state-run Corporation) has prepared detailed financial models for the three projects (the mining and metallurgical complex, the Sosnovsk-Indiga railway line, and the Indiga port). Those are public-private concession projects, and their further details will be available as the mega project proceeds, the director general added.
The payback term of the mega project’s driver - the mining part - is estimated at 6.5 years, of the railroad - 13 years.
About the project
In organization of the national mining industrial cluster, the parties will create in the Komi region a multi-disciplinary production of high-quality concentrates of porous rutile, zircon, iron oxide, needle-like wollastonite (a calcium silicate mineral), calcined quartz sands, glass sands, titanium dioxide, as well as titanium powders. Many products are unique for Russia and the country imports them. They are used for the aerospace, shipbuilding, automotive, oil and gas, paint and chemical industries.
AEON is working on the Indiga year-round deep-water sea port. Engineering surveys and pre-design formalities have been completed. The port’s cargo handling at the initial stage will make 8 MTPA (million tonnes per annum), and by 2030 it will be more than 80 MTPA.
The project to build the 559-kilometer-long railroad between Sosnogorsk and Indiga, crossing the Komi and Nenets regions, is being implemented by a consortium, which has completed the pre-design stage and prepared an optimal route, which minds the length, water obstacles, technical and economic aspects. Investments in the railroad’s construction are planned at 371 billion rubles ($6.7 billion) in 2022 prices. The railroad’s throughput is 122 pairs of trains a day, the annual cargo base is 67 million tonnes. The railroad requires 1,500 employees to serve it in the Komi and Nenets regions.
The development of the Pizhemskoye deposit and construction of the Indiga port and the Sosnogorsk - Indiga railway line comply with Komi’s and Nenets’ social and economic development strategies, as well as with the Russian Arctic Zone’s development strategy.