Russia's UC Rusal earmarks billions in project to reduce bauxite imports

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 584, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Junio)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Russian overall kaolin clay demand is estimated at 1m tpa. According to Petr Sizikov, spokesperson of the Russian Institute of Mineralogy, Geochemistry and Crystal Chemistry of Rare Elements, Rusal plans will boost this figure by several times, since the company will need about 3.5m tonnes of kaolin clay.

    Imports have remained rather stable at about 332,000 tonnes, but the devaluation of the rouble and high inventories may cause a steady decrease in the import of kaolin, which is mainly sourced from Ukraine. In 2014, Ukraine supplied 295,000 tonnes worth $28m, at an average $94/tonne. The remaining volumes came from UK, Brazil and the US. Russian kaolin imports in 2014 totalled $32m in value. In 2015 this decreased to $31m.

    There are 27 fields of kaolin clay in Russia, including nine fields of primary kaolin, 11 secondary kaolin fields and seven kaolin-quarts fields. The overall reserves of A + B + C1 category is 283.8m tonnes, on C2 category - 169.4m tonnes; while off-balance reserves are estimated at least 83.8m tonnes.