The Ministry of Natural Resources reported that the copper and other mineral industries also are highly concentrated, but that the situation is better for coal and alluvial gold.
By 2005, however, Russian companies had begun to seek exposure to Western markets and stock exchanges to raise money in larger quantities and more cheaply than in Russia.
The project foresees the development, construction, and operation of a bauxite-alumina complex in the Komi Republic, using material from the Middle Timan bauxite deposit.
The completion of this project would considerably reduce the Russian aluminum industry's dependence on foreign countries for raw material supplies.
[1] More than one-half of Russia's hard rock gold resources occur in the Maiskoye, Natalkinskoe, Nezhdaninskoe, Olimpiada, and the Sukhoi Log deposits in Siberia and in the Russian Far East.
More than 66% of Russian gold production comes from just six eastern regions (Amur, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, and Sakha-Yakutia).
According to a Russian analysis, the country's steel mills can be divided into three categories based on the level of technology they employ.
High-grade reserves at the open pit operations in the KMA were becoming depleted, although the area hosts significant lower grade resources in the weathered zones.
A further limited increase in iron ore production was projected to the year 2020 without a significant expansion of the resource base.
[1] The Skalisty Mine, which is located on the Taimyr Peninsula, was under development as of 2005; it was expected to achieve its design capacity of 1.2 Mt/yr of nickel-rich ore in 6 to 7 years.
The company's principal asset is the Kun-Manie project located in Amur Oblast, with JORC resources in excess of an 830,000 nickel equivalent tonnes and a positive independently compiled prefeasibility study.
These reserves are adequate for Norilsk Nickel to maintain current levels of palladium and platinum production for more than 20 years.
[25] During the post perestroika years tin production waned leading to bankruptcies and closures of virtually all operations.
[27] The Far Eastern Tin company has recommissioned the Gorniy processing plant and started operations in 2016 at Festivalnoye mine.
Khingan Resources are seeking to initiate the processing of tailings at the Khinganskoye Mine in the Jewish Autonomous Republic.
Pravoumirskoye Lts has initiated production at the high grade Pravoumisrkoye Mine in Khabarovsk region despite the serious infrastructure issues.
[28] Additional supply is expected from the Sable Deposit which was explored in Soviet times, and despite receiving technical economic conditions in 1993 from Gipronickel (Norilsk Nickel Subsidiary) was never developed.
Its major mining operations were located in the Sakha Yakutia Republic but, in 2005, the company began production at the Lomonosov diamond deposit in the northern European part of the country in Arkhangelsk oblast.
To maintain stable operations, ALROSA would need to increase its ore reserves by carrying out intensive prospecting for new diamond deposits.
[1] On June 28, 2005, full-scale mining was initiated at ALROSA's Lomonosov Division OAO Severalamz in the Arkhangelsk region with the commissioning of ore treatment plant No.
The plant was designed with the capacity to process about 1 Mt/yr of ore. Diamonds from the deposit are of gem quality, which accounted for the high appraisal value of the reserves at $12 billion.
[1] In late 2016, ALROSA announced that the Mir mine in Siberia had reached full projected capacity and was expected to produce over $400 million worth of diamonds per year.
The optimistic scenario is characterized by the growth of GDP at the rate of 4.7% to 5.2% annually, by a sevenfold increase of investment in fixed capital for this period compared with the 2000 level, and by high world prices for oil and gas.
As foreseen in the country's energy strategy program, coal production must increase by 10 to 15 Mt/yr between 2005 and 2010 and by a total of 105 Mt by the year 2020.
Although the creation of additional coal production capacity through upgrading and expansion of existing mines and development of new mines was possible based on reserves, doing so would require a level of investment in the coal sector far in excess of the historic level of investment in the past 5 years and casts doubt on the feasibility of the planned expansion.
Growth in Russia's natural gas sector has been slowed primarily by aging fields, state regulation, Gazprom's monopolistic control over the industry, and insufficient export pipelines.
A Gazprom subsidiary issued a report recommending a change of export strategy for the Russian gas industry.
[1] The Energy Strategy for Russia for the Period up to 2020 includes several scenarios that predict a range for Russian oil production of between 445 and 490 Mt/yr by 2010 and between 450 and 520 Mt/yr in 2020.
Uranium-bearing ores and solutions were processed to generate uranium concentrates, which were shipped for further reprocessing at the JSC Chepetsky Mechanical Plant.
[34] Canada In 2009, Rosatom began buying shares in Uranium One in a bid to expand mining operations abroad.