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NLMK to Build Pelletizing Plant at Stoilensky
02/21/2011 - NLMK has approved the construction of a pelletizing plant with a capacity of 6 million tonnes of iron ore pellets per year at Stoilensky. The plant will be able to fully cover the company’s pellet requirements as early as 2015.
NLMK has approved the construction of a pelletizing plant with a capacity of 6 million tonnes of iron ore pellets per year at Stoilensky, its fully owned subsidiary.
Stoilensky is Russia’s third-largest iron ore producer, with iron ore concentrate and sintering ore as its primary products. Its share in Russia’s total iron ore product output in 2010 was 14%.
Stoilensky’s mineable reserves, estimated at 5 billion tonnes, are located in the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly region, reportedly the world’s largest iron ore basin. Stoilensky became part of NLMK Group in 2004.
The project will encompass the construction of the pelletizing plant and development of a number of infrastructure facilities to supply raw materials for the production of high-grade pellets (with Fe content above 65%). The company is planning to increase iron ore output at Stoilensky’s operating mine by 30% vs. the 2011 level to ensure the required raw material supplies for the pelletizing plant.
The project will be jointly executed with Siemens VAI/Outotec, a German-Finnish consortium, which is responsible for supplying the required equipment and technologies, as well as rendering other construction-related services.
Investments into Stoilensky’s operating and infrastructure facilities over 2011-2014 will total some RUR39 billion (or equal to US$1.3 billion based on US$/RUR FX rate as at 18 February 2011).
Investments into Stoilensky’s operating and infrastructure facilities over 2011-2014 will total some RUR39 billion (or equal to US$1.3 billion based on US$/RUR FX rate as at 18 February 2011).
The project, which is part of the Group’s strategy of strengthening vertical integration, is being executed as part of the third stage of NLMK’s Technical Upgrade Program. Construction is expected to be completed in 2014. The plant will be able to fully cover the company’s pellet requirements as early as 2015, even considering the launch of the 3.4 million tonne Blast Furnace # 7 at Novolipetsk, the Group’s main production facility located in Lipetsk.
During the Stoilensky pellet plant construction, supplies of iron ore pellets to Novolipetsk will be made under long-term contracts between NLMK and Metalloinvest Holding (Lebedinsky and Mikhailovski mining and processing plants). Beginning in 2015, Stoilensky’s average annual output of saleable iron ore will include 2 million tonnes of sintering ore, 11 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate, and 6 million tonnes of iron ore pellets.
