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First ton from new mine

The Oleny Ruchey mine (szfk.ru)

The first ton of ore is today produced at the Oleney Ruchey apatite mine in the Kola Peninsula.

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The Northwestern Phosphorous Company, a subsidiary of fertilizer giant Acron, is on Friday expected to extract its first ton of ore from its new Oleney Ruchey apatite mine in the Kola Peninsula, a press release from the company reads.

The company started construction works at the site in late October 2008 and will invest more than one billion USD on the project. So far, about 300 million USD has been spent on the site.

The Oleney Ruchey project will include two development phases, the first on the development of the open pit, a processing plant, as well as infrastructure. The processing plant, which will have a capacity of one million tons of ore will be opened in mid-2012. Capacity will later be expanded to two million tons.

-This is a unique project for Russia, which will create a modern and high-tech production of phosphates, Governor Dmitry Dmitriyenko said about the project this week, a press release from the regional administration informs.

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