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Komi, Nenets regions to implement Arctic mega project by 2035

On April, 12, at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the parties signed an agreement on the implementation in the Komi and Nenets Autonomous regions of an integrated infrastructural mega project of a national mining cluster

SYKTYVKAR, April 14. /TASS/. The Komi Region, the Nenets Autonomous Region, RUSTITAN, AEON will implement to 2035 an infrastructure project to build a national mining cluster, the Indiga deep-water sea port and a rail line between Sosnogorsk and Indiga. The parties inked an agreement on Tuesday, Komi governor’s press service said.

"On April, 12, at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the parties signed an agreement on the implementation in the Komi and Nenets Autonomous regions of an integrated infrastructural mega project of a national mining cluster, including the construction of the Indiga deep-water sea port and a rail line between Sosnogorsk and Indiga in the Russian Federation’s Arctic Zone," the release reads.

The agreement was signed by Komi’s Governor Vladimir Uiba, Nenets Governor Yury Bezdudny, RUSTITAN’S President Anatoly Tkachuk, AEON’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Roman Trotsenko, and InfraVEB’s Director General Denis Nozdrachev. The project has been initiated by a consortium of RUSTITAN and AEON to implement the Strategy for Development of the Russian Federation’s Arctic Zone to 2035, which the Russian president inked on October, 26, 2020.

Under the agreement, the parties will work on the transport, energy and telecommunication infrastructures to serve the mineral base, the development of natural deposits and mining projects in the Komi and Nenets regions, as well as on a railway connection to the Northern Sea Route via the Indiga deep-water sea port in the interests of developing the Russian transport system.

About the project’s stages

RUSTITAN organizes a national mining industrial cluster at the world’s biggest titanium deposit in Komi’s Tsilemsky District - Pyzhemskoye. The parties to the agreement will create 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 for additive 3D printing technologies.

The mining project is aimed at consumers and manufacturers in the aerospace, shipbuilding, automotive, oil and gas, paint and chemical industries. In November 2020, after the geological exploration was completed, the titanium ores and glass sandstones reserves at the Pyzhemskoye deposit passed state commission on mineral reserves. In February 2021, the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use confirmed officially the Pyzhemskoye titanium deposit’s discovery.

AEON will work 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 companies’ consortium will work on the rail line between Sosnogorsk and Indiga. The development of the Pyzhemskoye deposit and the work on the Indiga port with a rail line between Sosnogorsk and Indiga comply with Komi’s social and economic development strategy to 2035, with Nenets’ development strategy to 2030, as well as with the Russian Federation’s Arctic Zone’s development strategy to 2035.

"The creation of a national mining industrial cluster is of strategic importance for Komi’s social and economic development," the press service quoted Komi’s Governor Vladimir Uiba as saying. "It will increase significantly the region’s investment attractiveness, will contribute to the development of production facilities and the creation of high-performance jobs. The regional government supports fully the efforts of RUSTITAN Holding and AEON Corporation to develop the Russian Arctic zone.".