Zinc plant at former Ufaleinickel site to open in Q3 2024

CHELYABINSK. Sept 15 (Interfax) - Polymet Engineering LLC plans to open a zinc electrolysis plant with capacity to produce 120,000 tonnes of metallic zinc per year in single-industry town Verkhny Ufalei in the third quarter of 2024, the Economic Ministry of Chelyabinsk Region told Interfax.

"The project is being carried out on schedule," the ministry said. Construction has already been completed on production building No. 2, leaching facilities No. 1 and No. 2, checkpoints, the boiler house, defroster, lab with technical monitoring department, indoor storage and sulfuric acid storage facility and compressor station, the press service said.

The plant is expected to create almost 800 jobs, about 100 of which have already been created. Polymet Engineering has already begun trading personnel to work at the plant.

Polymet Engineering, a resident of the Verkhny Ufalei priority development area is building the zinc plant at the former industrial premises of the shutdown and bankrupt OJSC Ufaleinickel in Chelyabinsk Region. The cost of the project was previously estimated at 21.4 billion rubles. The plant is expected to become the second largest in Russia by zinc production capacity. Production was scheduled to start in 2023-2024.

Polymet Engineering is registered in Verkhny Ufalei with charter capital of 50 million rubles, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities showed. The company is 99.9% owned by Cyprus-based Otinia Limited and the remaining 0.1% is held by CEO Pavel Ponomarev.