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Nornickel’s Bystrinsky plant licensed for full-scale operations of all facilities

In 2013, Nornickel began construction of Bystrinsky GOK in a hard-to-reach area in Transbaikalia

CHITA, December 19. /TASS/. Nornickel’s Bystrinsky GOK (Bystrinsky mining and processing plant) in Transbaikalia’s south-east received formal permissions from the Federal Agency for subsoil use (Rosnedra) to commission all the 250 industrial facilities. Thus, the plant, which has been working in the hot commissioning mode since 2017, will begin full-scale operations, the Bystrinskoye Mining Company’s press service told TASS on Wednesday.

"Bystrinsky GOK has received documents licensing full-scale operations at all the 45 stages of construction, which comprise more than 250 industrial facilities," the press service said.

"We’ve covered the distance between foundation laying and completion of every facility," the Bystrinskoye Mining Company’s Director General Alexander Popov said, adding the received documents are "the most important milestone in GOK’s history."

GOK’s biggest facilities are the processing plant, quarries, administrative and household complexes; energy, heat and water supply facilities; treatment facilities, and tailings storage.

"GOK’s buildings and complexes not only comply with the project papers, they all answer the most up-to-date technology requirements to industrial facilities," Head of Bystrinskoye Mining Company’s Project Office Sergei Korolev said.

In 2013, Nornickel began construction of Bystrinsky GOK in a hard-to-reach area in Transbaikalia, some 500 km from Chita. Since late 2017, the plant had been working in the hot commissioning mode. At the design capacity, due in 2020, the plant will produce annually 3 mt of magnetite concentrate and 260 kt of copper concentrate, and 9.5 million Troy ounces of gold. The plant’s target markets are Russia and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.