OREANDA-NEWS. April 13, 2009. Russia’s biggest uranium mining company, Priargun Mining Chemical Combine (PMCC, subsidiary of Uranium Holding ARMZ), has completed the construction of a sulfuric acid plant worth over USD 30mln. The official launch of the plant is scheduled for June 2009.

The capacity of the plant is 180,000 tons of sulfuric acid a year. It is supposed to be one of the biggest sulfuric acid plants in Siberia and the Far East. The existing sulfuric acid plant was built as far back as 1976 and has exhausted its resources. Sulfuric acid is used as a leaching reagent.

In the last five years PMCC has produced over 3,000 tons of uranium a year. By 2015 Uranium Holding ARMZ is planning to invest no less than USD 210mln in the development of Streltsovsk uranium field.
 
Priargun Mining and Chemical Combine is one of the world’s biggest and Russia’s biggest uranium mining companies. It is the largest multi-sector ore mining enterprise in Chita region. PMCC is suibsidiary of Uranium Holding ARMZ, which is part of Atomenergoprom OJSC. The company develops Streltsovsk ore area, where it mines 28.4% of the total prospected and 94% of the total balance sheet reserves of Russia. PMCC mines and processes ore for producing natural uranium and molybdenum compounds, mines coal and limestone, produces sulfuric acid and generates electricity at own thermal power plant.

Uranium Holding ARMZ manages all Russian uranium mining companies (Priargun Mining Chemical Combine, Dalur and Khiagda) and is implementing a joint project in Kazakhstan (Zarechnoye). 100% of ARMZ belongs to Atomenergoprom OJSC, which is part of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. ARMZ is the world’s fifth uranium producer (3,500 tons) with the world’s second biggest uranium reserves (538,000 tons).

Atomenergoprom OJSC (Atomny Energopromyshleny Kompleks) is a state holding that is supposed to comprise 89 nuclear companies and to cover the whole range of nuclear services: from uranium mining to NPP construction and electricity production. Atomenergoprom’s companies will have a total of 175,000 employees and an annual production of 200bln RUR (5.5bln EUR). Atomenergoprom is one of the biggest players on the world market: it has a 40% share in the world’s uranium enrichment services, 17% in nuclear fuel production, 8% in uranium mining, 28% in NPP construction (10 reactors). The director of Atomenergoprom is Vladimir Travin, the chairman of the board of directors – Sergey Kiriyenko.