MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Udokan Copper plans to launch the first start-up complex at Udokan by the end of this year, while the leach plant - in early 2024, a company representative told TASS.
"The first start-up complex will be launched by the end of this year. Today the plant is one pace away from completion of the construction, and we are focused on pre-commissioning activities, cold and hot trial of equipment. This year, as planned, we will put the ore-processing plant into service, while at the beginning of next year - the leach plant," the company said, adding that the first and second phases of MMC Udokan will ensure processing of around 40 mln tons of ore and production of around 400,000 tons of copper.
Chief Executive Officer Alexey Yashchuk also said in an interview with Globus magazine that the company plans to reach design capacity production in late 2024. "Within the framework of the first phase it will reach 15 mln tons of ore per year with production of up to 150,000 tons of copper," he said.
Moreover, Yashchuk said that the company supplies a portion of its production to the Russian market, though Asian-Pacific countries are a prior direction for it. "We see our consumers both on the domestic and foreign markets. That said, our prior direction is Asian-Pacific countries, China in particular," he noted.
Udokan Copper (part of Alisher Usmanov’s USM holding) was established in 2008 to develop the Udokan Copper Deposit in Kalar District of Russia’s Trans-Baikal Region. Udokan’s mineral resources are estimated at 26.7 mln tons of copper.