Ilmenite to provide jobs for 220 Tomsk natives when launched in 2021

TOMSK, Jul 22 – RIA Tomsk. The launch of the first stage of the mining and processing plant (MPP) Ilmenite in the Tomsk district will provide a total of 215-220 high-tech jobs; residents of the nearby settlements – Malinovka and Oktyabrskoye – can get jobs at the enterprise – they will have to undergo training, head of the district Alexander Tereshchenko told RIA Tomsk.

Earlier it was reported that the ilmenite-zircon deposit near Tomsk is considered the largest in Russia by reserves of quartz sands and is not inferior to foreign ones by content of zircon, ilmenite and rutile. Rostec and the private fund Izurium Capital acted as investors in the construction of the Tugansk Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise Ilmenit. Later, ARMZ Uranium Holding Company (part of Rosatom) bought 25% of shares of the enterprise. The launch of the first stage is scheduled for the end of 2021.

"The total number of jobs will be 215-220 at the first stage. About 60-65 people are already working there today. Naturally, their salaries cannot be under-the-counter, they are absolutely white and transparent. The enterprise is powerful. We are going to add another 200 jobs in the second phase of the plant, in 2024-2025", – Tereschenko said.

He noted that the plant, the buildings of which are already built, now employs only about 10 inhabitants of the nearby settlements (Oktyabrskoye and Malinovka). Most of the employees of the mine are city dwellers, and this is explained by the level of education. "The owner (of the Ilmenite) will train the personnel including from the local residents who are ready to study. It is not easy to buy a ready-made specialist today, considering the uniqueness of this deposit", – said the head of the district.

It was also reported, that within the framework of the first phase of the construction it is planned to develop Yuzhno-Alexandrovsky area of Tuganskoye deposit and to process 575 thousand tons of ore sands per year. If the demand for the products is confirmed, it is possible to develop the Kuskovo-Shiryaevsky area and increase production capacity to 6.9 million tons per year.

According to the SPARK-Interfax analytical system, Tugansk Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise Ilmenite was registered in the Tomsk region in 2002. It is classified as a non-public joint stock company. The owner of the major share (90.01%) is the Cypriot fund Arfay Enterprises Limited. At the end of 2020, the company's assets were estimated at 1.47 billion rubles, net loss was 10.3 million rubles.