Over 40 types of minerals found in the world's largest titanium deposit in Komi

The Russian Titanium Resources group of companies (Rustitan JSC, Moscow) and the Komi authorities signed an agreement on January 27 to build a vertically integrated mining and metallurgical complex for processing titanium ores and quartz (glass) sands of the Pizhemsky deposit. It is aimed at developing relationships on the implementation of the investment project, developing the mineral resource base and the rational use of natural resources, implementing the Komi socio-economic development strategy for the period until 2035.

Rustitan intends to involve the republican research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the implementation of the project, and to train specialists in the mining industry in the educational organizations of the region. The agreement was concluded for the entire duration of the project, control over its implementation will be carried out by a working group on the integrated development of titanium deposits in Komi, the press service of the head of the region said.

“We have studied in detail the material and mineral compositions of the ores of the Pizhemsky deposit. This work was actively carried out from 2016 to 2019. According to its results, more than 40 minerals were diagnosed, which enabled us, together with the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to come up with a fundamentally new scheme for the enrichment of titanium ores, ”Alexey Novikov, the press service of the chairman of the board of directors, quotes.

The timing of the project to commission the complex is not specified.

It was previously reported that the launch of a mining complex with a capacity of three million tons of ore per year at the Pizhemsky deposit was postponed from 2020 to 2021. It was said earlier that exploration and commissioning will be completed a year earlier. In 2016, the Rustitan company and the VNIINM state scientific center named after A. Bochvar signed an agreement on strategic partnership for the implementation of an investment project for the construction of the complex and the development of titanium deposits in Komi.

*** The Pizhemsky titanium deposit, which is located in the Ust-Tsilemsky district, is the largest in the world and accounts for 50 percent of all titanium reserves in Russia. Its resources are more than 2.5 billion tons, not counting related minerals.

The life of the enterprise in the licensed territory of CJSC Rustitan (35 square kilometers) will be more than 150 years. As part of the project, the first production of high-grade rutile concentrates in Russia will be created in Komi, including a large-scale roasting of colored titanium oxide pigments, as well as the production of special porous rutile concentrates to create large-capacity lithium titanate batteries.

The project is aimed at consumers and manufacturers in the aviation, space, shipbuilding, oil and gas, paint and varnish and chemical industries. Additional production products — rare-earth concentrates with a high content of yttrium, dysprosium, erbium, and lutetium — will be of independent importance for defense industry enterprises, in particular, ChMZ OJSC of Rosatom State Corporation.

The project carried out geological exploration, which they wanted to complete in 2018. Earlier, Giredmet JSC conducted technological tests on the enrichment of titanium ores and quartz sand of the deposit.

They want to create two industrial sites: one directly at the field, the second - near Ukhta. They will house a mining enterprise, a mining and processing plant and a mining and metallurgical complex. The project received a positive assessment in the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia and was included in the sectoral plan for import substitution in non-ferrous metallurgy.

As previously reported, about a thousand new jobs will be created in total.

Source: https://komionline.ru/