ARKHANGELSK, December 25. /TASS/. A crystalline iodine plant is ready in the Arkhangelsk Region, Governor Alexander Tsybulsky wrote on Telegram following a visit to the deposit.

"The Russian Iodine Company, based in Arkhangelsk, has completed a crystalline iodine facility at the Severodvinsk deposit," the governor wrote. "The current production line's annual capacity is 4 tons of iodine. The company uses an ion-exchange method of iodine extraction, which has no analogues in Russia, thus they have to structure the entire technological process on their own. Commissioning work is underway, and Russian Iodine expects the first products by the end of January, 2025."

The field is unique, since the iodine reserves are at a depth of just over 100 m, while other reserves may lie one kilometer deep or even more. The Severodvinsk deposit's explored operational reserves amount to 15,000 cubic meters of iodine-containing water a day - thus, over 25 years of operation the plant's production will make 3,000 tons.

The company plans the field's additional exploration to triple the production, initial estimates say. "We have started to develop an experimental well cluster: two forest clearing lines, each 700 m long, power lines, underground pipelines, and installed water intake wells at the end of forest clearings," the governor's press service quoted Russian Iodine's Director Alexey Izhmyakov as saying. "We take water from a depth of 120 m, it is sent to the production facility and then and goes back underground through an injection well, though already to a depth of 200 meters. This is done to maintain the reservoir pressure of the intake horizon and observe how the drilling water spreads through the rock. This way, we will make the intake most efficient in the future."

The company has been negotiating potential buyers of iodine, mainly pharmaceutical companies. The crystalline iodine project is of national importance - no region is involved in iodine mining and production, though Russia's annual consumption ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 tons. Pharmacological production based on iodine, extracted in the region, will become an investment project of the Arkhangelsk Region's Capital of the North advanced-development territory.