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05 August 2009
ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. Starts Developing Itmanovskaya Placer of Ti, Zr Sand Lukoyanovskoye Deposit
ARMZ Uranium Holding Co. has commenced the development of Itmanovskaya placer of Ti, Zr sand Lukoyanovskoye deposit (the Nizhny Novgorod Region) as part of the Zirconium Project to secure the nuclear industry’s titanium and zirconium feedstock demand. The Zirconium Project makes part of the Comprehensive project approved by OJSC Atomenergorpom. The purpose of this project is to develop import substitution production of titanium and zirconium for the nuclear industry. It provides for supply of concentrates to the enterprises of OJSC TVEL.
Lukoyanovskoye deposit located 180 km south from Nizhny Novgorod is among five largest titanium and zirconium placer deposits in Russia. Its confirmed reserves of ore-bearing sands (C1+C2) are 30 mln. tons, and the inferred reserves (P1+P2) exceed 100 mln. tons. Itmanovskaya placer is the richest one at Lukoyanovskoye deposit and its ore-bearing sands have one of the highest titanium and zirconium grade in Russia. Reserves of the placer are about 1 mln. tons of titanium (in ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene) and over 350,000 tons of zirconium oxide (in zircon). These reserves will satisfy the needs of the nuclear industry for many years to come.
The development plan includes construction of the mining and processing plant with the annual capacity of up to 1.5 mln. tons of ore sands to be commissioned by 2014. On July 24, 2009, LLC Firma Geostar, a subsidiary of JSC Atomredmetzoloto and holder of license for Itmanovskaya placer of Lukoyanovskoye deposit, signed a contract for pre-design development of the front-end mining and enrichment technologies.
The contractors are OJSC Krasnoyarsk Research and Design Institute VNIPIET, FGUP VIMS, LLC Siberian Industrial Holding, FGUP IMGRE and LLC Institute Gipronickel.
