Economic development and social aspect of activities of the mining arm of Rosatom in Kurgan Oblast discussed during the working visit of the head of Kurgan Oblast Alexei Kokorin to Dalur

The visit began with the today’s main construction project in Uksyanskoe village, Dalmatovsky district. A new school is being built there. Dalur has made a significant contribution of about 30 million rubles to the construction project. "The strategy of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation is to do everything possible to improve the quality of life and minimize the impact on the environment. From the very beginning of its operations in the region, ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. has been implementing housing projects for our employees, sport development and many others programs. Speaking about the school, this project is very significant for Dalur. After all, the children of our employees will be studying there, among other students," said Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company Alexander Burutin.

The Governor of Kurgan Oblast Alexei Kokorin noted with satisfaction that, despite the low temperatures, the construction of the school was going full swing, and the first results were already visible. The first floor of the elementary building was ready in six months; a gym and three-storey building with a school cafeteria, assembly hall and classrooms are being constructed. The Governor tasked the heads of the municipality and contractors to complete the construction in 2016, so as on September 1st, more than 270 children would be able to sit at the desk of the new educational institution.

"The issue of construction of a new school in Uksyanskoye has been unresolved for many years. Today, thanks to Dalur, the work at the site is underway in accordance with the schedule, and no matter what the weather conditions, the school must be completed in time. We will be carrying out this project jointly," concluded the Governor.

Management of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. and Dalur showed the Governor the entire uranium mining chain. The delegation visited the drilling site, in-situ leaching site, local sorption unit and, of course, the main production facility of the company. "The uranium mining process is environmentally friendly and safe. For Kurgan Oblast residents, especially those involved in the production process, it is crucial," concluded Alexei Kokorin.

At the central production site of Dalur, the Governor took part in the grand ceremony of putting into operation the uranium compound (yellow cake) suspension drying system.

The production line was purchased from the Czech company Susarny Praha s.r.o.; the project was developed by VNIPIpromtekhnologii JSC (Engineering Center of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co.). The equipment has been manufactured to meet the requirements of Dalur to be placed in the existing industrial building premises.

"We have been fine-tuning the system for quite a long time. We selected optimal operation modes, introduced engineering changes together with manufacturers and colleagues from VNIPIpromtekhnologii. For example, we improved gas purification unit, thus ensuring protection against harmful emissions 100 times higher than the design values," said General Director of Dalur Nikolai Poponin.

The equipment is fully automated, which ensures stable operation and process safety. Currently, the line reached its design capacity of 120 kg of yellow cake per hour. This corresponds to the output of Dalur with account to increased mining volumes at Dalmatovskoye and Khokhlovskoye deposits. It should be noted that this year Dalur plans to produce 590 tons of uranium, and 600 tons in 2016.

"Despite all the specifics of our operations, now we can be called truly customer-oriented company. Previously the humidity of uranium compound suspension achieved by Dalur was 30 %. After introduction of the modern drying technology, humidity dropped to 1.5–2 %. This is very important not only to reduce logistics costs, but primarily for the convenience of further processing to produce high-purity uranium compounds at Rosatom's TVEL Fuel Company facilities. Compliance of products with the basic quality specifications ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), will certainly improve our position in the world uranium market," noted the Executive Director of ARMZ Victor Svyatetskiy.

He was supported by the director of sublimation plant of SCC (a subsidiary of TVEL), Sergei Kotov: "We have never had any complaints to Dalur products, and now, after reducing the humidity, this company will become one of the best partners for us. This seemingly small project within Rosatom will significantly reduce the cost of the entire production chain."

Today the prospects of Dalur are not only associated with uranium but also with rare earth metals production. The project for associated scandium extraction from pregnant solution of uranium mining enterprise is being implemented on the basis of the solution of Rosatom, The technology is being developed by experts of VNIPIpromtekhnologii, an engineering center of ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. A pilot plant was demonstrated to the Governor of Kurgan Oblast, designed for a capacity of 400 kg of rare earth metal per year. "We need to calculate the consumption of chemicals, electricity, and other resources, making scandium extracting process optimal. After that we start pilot development, design the full-scale plant and a small workshop connected with the primary production facility to locate the plant," said Viktor Svyatetskiy. According to him, total production of scandium in Kurgan Oblast may reach 10 tons per year.

At the final meeting in the conference hall of Dalur it was noted that in 2016 the company plans to increase tax revenues by 200 million rubles as compared with the current year. "This suggests that the company is operating steadily and developing, while being socially oriented. We are pleased to work with such companies," said Alexey Kokorin.

The Governor instructed the heads of the regional Department of Industry, Transport, Communication and Energy, Department of Economic Development, Trade and Labor and the Office for Investment Activities and Inter-regional Relations of Kurgan Oblast to analyze in the near future the possibility for establishment of industrial park on the basis of Dalur. "This is very important; state-of-the-art technology will be employed there. We are interested in it," said Alexey Kokorin.