Russia to Significantly Increase Domestic Niobium Production

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Other Metals

Eugene Gerden reports that Russia plans to significantly increase the volume of domestic niobium production in the coming years, that will be achieved through the expansion of the existing production and processing capacities. As part of these plans, production will be accelerated on the basis of largest niobium fields, and in particular the Lovozero mine, which is located in the Murmansk region, as well as the Tatar field in the Krasnoyarsk region. In the case of Lovozero, production will take place in the form of loparite concentrate, while in Tatar in the form of a pyrochlore concentrate.

A particular attention will be paid for the increase of production at the Tomtor rare earth-niobium field in the Republic of Sakha and the Etykinsky tantalum-niobium field, which is located in the Chita region of Russia. In the middle-term, production is expected to be expanded on the basis of other Russian largest niobium fields, such as the Beloziminskoe and Katuginskoe. Payback period of these projects are estimated at 7 years. Much will depend on the volume of state support, that will be provided by the government for the implementation of these projects. Currently, the majority of Russian niobium demand is met by the imports from Brazil, however, according to state plans, the increase of the domestic production will help to significantly reduce imports, which will release the resources to other countries.

Original URL showing 404: https://investorintel.com/sectors/technology-metals/technology-metals-intel/russia-increase-domestic-niobium-production-coming-years/