ARKHANGELSK, October 19. /TASS/. Mining at the Pavlovskoye deposit on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago will continue in two stages for more than 20 years to extract all reserves of zinc, lead and silver, Director General of the First Ore Mining Company (a branch of Rosatom) Alexander Lukin told the 6th international forum Arctic Projects: Today and Tomorrow, which opened in Arkhangelsk on Thursday.
Earlier, the First Ore Mining Company reported it planned to organize at the Pavlovskoye deposit a complex for mining and processing lead-zinc ores with the annual capacity of 3.5 million tonnes. The Arkhangelsk Region’s Governor Igor Orlor told TASS the deposit’s development would bring to the local budget up to a billion rubles a year ($ 15.2 million).
"We shall organize production in two stages," the mining company’s director general said. "The first stage is 14 years, where we shall extract 70% of the reserves, and the second stage of 6-8 years is where we finalize the mining there."
"Besides, we may mine promising ore occurrences, which we shall do during exploration, when the enterprise is working already," he said, adding the Pavlovskoye deposit takes an area of 12 square kilometers.
"In the ground there are 2.5 million tonnes of zinc, more than 0.5 tonnes of lead and 1,195 tonnes of silver," he continued. "Besides, we have not explored the entire area, and there are certain forecasted resources there, which are estimated at 32 million tonnes a year."
The Arctic Projects: Today and Tomorrow forum is underway in Arkhangelsk. It is devoted to the northern region’s economic development in connection with implementation of the oil and gas and infrastructure projects in the Arctic and the intensive development of navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
The forum features leading Russian and foreign companies, officials, representatives of scientific and educational institutions.