Russia to update mineral resource development strategy to 2035 by April
MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - The Russian government is supposed to update the strategy for the development of the country's mineral resource base to 2035, with an extension to 2050, by April 2023, according to a list of instructions the president issued after the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) that has been posted on the Kremlin's website.
The president instructed the government to make changes to the strategy by March 31, 2023 that "provide for its extension to 2050, devoting particular attention to updating provisions regarding conducting geological exploration work and processing scarce mineral resources," the statement said.
Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov said in an interview with Interfax earlier that the updates to the strategy will take into account Russian industry's current needs for strategic resources.
"The country has sufficient reserves, but we need to understand what and how much is needed for the economy. Russia imported some types of mineral resources [but] the situation has changed, the list of strategic raw materials is being updated," Kozlov said.
The latest version of the mineral resource strategy dates back to 2018 and needs seriously analysis, Kozlov said.
The government in August approved a new list of key types of strategic resources after the first update of the list in 26 years. The number of items on the list was expanded from 29 to 61.
The updated list includes oil, natural gas, helium, uranium, manganese, chromium, titanium, bauxite, copper, lead, antimony, tin, zinc, nickel, molybdenum, tungsten, cobalt, rare elements (lithium, rubidium, cesium, beryllium, scandium, etc.) and rare-earth elements (yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium), gold, silver, platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum), diamonds, graphite, phosphate, potassium salts, spar, pure quartz and groundwater.