Special investment contracts expanded to cover rare-earth metal production technologies
MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax) - The list of technologies which companies can develop or implement under a special investment contract (SPIC) entitling them to concessions has been expanded to include technologies for producing certain types of rare-earth metals (REM).
On Monday, the Russian government published a decree expanding the list of high-tech areas which SPICs could cover. The changes were announced by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers last week. "The list will be expanded to include over 20 prospective solutions, spanning industries such as radio electronics, medicine, energy, metallurgy, chemicals, agriculture and the creation of new materials," he said.
Under the decree, SPICs may be concluded for projects using technologies which separate bulk concentrate of rare-earth elements by extracting individual compounds of lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, praseodymium and bulk concentrate of middle rare-earth elements including samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium and yttrium.
Technologies used to separate bulk concentrate of these middle rare-earth elements by extraction will also meet the requirements for SPICs.
The decree states that these technologies had been included in the list because they will make it possible to substitute imported materials currently used in the production of individual rare-earth elements, develop associated industries "by making products with unique properties new to the Russian Federation", create demand for these products in Russia and boost exports.
"Establishing production facilities which use modern technologies to separate REMs into different compounds will allow us to substitute imports from China and strengthen the technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation, creating a closed production cycle for REM products (considering that separation plants remain in Estonia and Kazakhstan)," the document reads.
The decree states that REMs are used in Russia to produce magnets, which are used in wind energy generation and electric transport, hybrid motor engines and military industry. They are also used to produce glass and catalysts for oil production and processing, as well to detoxify exhaust gases and treat sewage.
Apart from REM technologies, the requirements for a SPIC will now cover technologies used to produce certain types of chemicals, including hydrogen, methanol, terephthalic acid, acetone cyanohydrin, nitric acid, fluorinated carbon, ammonia via multi-train production, granulated urea and potassium nitrate via conversion. SPICs will also now cover agricultural production technologies used for vegetable oil extraction, frozen bread and pastries, ready-made pet food and enzyme preparations for food.
A SPIC stipulates that the investor assume responsibility for the implementation of the investment project on the scale of mass industrial production, while the state ensures unchanging conditions for the project's implementation on federal and regional levels, including tax conditions. Until 2019, SPICs had a fixed term of up to ten years and did not contain strict requirements for the technologies used to implement the project. The SPIC 2.0, the updated version of the mechanism from 2020, requires that the technologies implemented are included in a government-approved list of modern technologies.
A SPIC 2.0 is concluded for a longer period of up to 15 years for projects with up to 50 billion rubles of investments and up to 20 years for projects of over 50 billion years. It also requires that participants are selected in a contest and does not stipulate a minimum investment amount.
