OREANDA-NEWS. July 20, 2010. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today visited the new potash fertilizer plant being built by EuroChem at the Gremyachinskoe deposit in the Volgograd Region.

This is the first greenfield project of its kind in Russia in over 30 years. With an estimated cost of around RUR 85bn, it is a major undertaking not only by Russian standards, but on a European scale. The plans call for construction of full-fledged industrial, engineering, transportation and social infrastructure in and around Kotelnikovo, Volgograd Region.

The potash mine and processing plant is a high-tech construction project that complies with strict environmental standards. Some of the world’s leading engineering, shaft-sinking and construction companies from Russia, South Africa, Germany, the Czech Republic, Canada, Belarus and Ukraine are working on the mine and processing facility. The use of cut-and-fill along with runoff-free technologies—another first for Russia—will help to minimize the environmental impact of the project.

EuroChem’s potash investment will also generate several billion roubles of annual tax revenue for all levels of the government, create 3,000 jobs at the new mining and processing complex, and several thousand jobs in related industries. EuroChem has invested RUR 1bn into construction of housing for future employees of the plant as part of the RUR 15.8bn already invested in the project.

In addition to visiting the future production site, Putin attended the opening of a 200-unit housing complex and met with residents of an apartment building that EuroChem opened earlier in 2010. Besides production-related and housing issues, the extremely important topic of state participation in the creation of social infrastructure was discussed, including schools, hospitals, kindergartens, housing, utilities and much more. The successful experience of large-scale projects like the one in Volgograd Region may be replicated in other regions of the country.