Fire damage, sanctions delay start of new Russia zinc mine

By Polina Devitt and Julian Luk

LONDON (Reuters) -The start of zinc concentrate production at Russia’s new Ozernoye mine has been delayed until at least the third quarter of 2024 and a ramp-up to full capacity until 2025, it said on Monday.

The mine, which was originally due to start production by the end of 2023, was expected to be one of the main drivers of global mine production growth this year, industry association ILZSG said in October.

However, a fire damaged the imported equipment in the flotation part of Ozernoye’s plant in November, while U.S. sanctions imposed on the company in December make it hard to find a replacement abroad, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“The flotation part of the plant with imported equipment was damaged in the fire. As a result, the technological scheme will be based on flotation equipment that the company has developed by its own design bureau,” the company told Reuters.

“The new equipment is identical to foreign analogues in terms of its characteristics, so the quality of concentrate will not be affected by these changes,” it added.

The project, which would be Russia’s largest zinc mine, is designed to produce up to 350,000 metric tonnes of zinc in zinc concentrate. It is already mining ore and stockpiling it until the plant is ready to process it.

An investigation into the cause of the fire continues.

(Editing by Christina Fincher)