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Rosatom reaches preliminary agreements on lead export to Europe and China

A significant amount of lead and lead concentrate will be supplied from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago

ARCHANGELSK, March 31. /TASS/. Rosatom plans to export lead from the Pavlovskoe lead and zinc deposit in Arctic Russia to China and European countries and preliminary agreements on export supplies have already been reached with companies from China and Sweden, Chief Executive Officer of Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev said on Friday.

"We plan to export lead and lead concentrate. We already have preliminary agreements with the largest Chinese state-owned metals company and Sweden’s Boliden. Boliden is ready to become our partner in further processing of lead concentrate and its further sale on the European market at the level of tentative arrangements.

The greater portion of lead and lead concentrate will be supplied from the Novaya Zemlya archipelago to the European market, Likhachev said. "We have a tentative understanding of proportions. I think about 50,000 tonnes of lead concentrate of the Pavlovskoe Deposit will be shipped to China and about 200-210 thousand tonnes to Europe," he added.

The Pavlovskoye deposit is located on the Yuzhny Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, 15 km from the coast of the Barents Sea. It covers an area of more than 12 square kilometers.

The explored reserves of lead-zinc ores amount to about 50 million tonnes, silver reserves - 16 tonnes. Likhachev stressed that after additional exploration the field’s reserves may even double.

An open-pit method is expected to be used for mining. For this purpose, the northernmost mining facility in Russia will be built on the Arctic island. Its capacity will be 2.5 million tonnes of ore per year. In total, about 1,000 jobs will be created.