Berillium Hydrometallurgical Plant to be built in Buryatia

Hydrometallurgical production complex will be built on Ermakovsky beryllium deposits, the Republic of Buryatia, one of the richest deposits in the world. The new plant will produce beryllium hydroxide to be delivered to Kazakhstan, China and Japan for processing into pure beryllium and beryllium alloys.

The Metropol Group holds the license to develop Ermakov deposit. The operator of the project is the East-Siberian Metals Corporation, a subsidiary of Metropol Group. The participation in this project was proved by The Directors Board of Rusnano Corporation on 11 August, 2011.

Design work should be completed in 2012, construction is to start in 2013, the full capacity should be reached in 2017.

The Yermakovskoe deposit is located 180 km from Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. It’s the only profitable beryllium ore deposit in Russia and one of the richest beryllium deposits in the world.

Fluorine-beryllium reserves of the Yermakovskoe deposit were approved by the USSR State Reserves Committee in 1970 in the amount of 1.7 million tons of ore. After the mine shutdown in 1989 the deposit still has 1.4 million tons of ore  (C1+C2 categories) on the State Reserves Committee balance sheet.

During 1979-1989 Zabaikalsky Mining and Processing Plant were developing the deposit using an open-cut mining method to reach a high-grade concentrates production. The Yermakovsky concentrates were supplied to Ulba Metallurgical Works, Kazakhstan for further processing into different kinds of high-tech beryllium products. Later on beryllium ore extraction was ceased and production was suspended. Since then Ulba Metallurgical Works has continued to process its own remaining concentrate reserves and supplying beryllium products to the world market, including USA, Russia and China.

Beryllium and its semi-products are used in aerospace, electrical, telecommunications, energy and other industries.