IRC Ltd, the iron ore unit of Russian miner Petropavlovsk Group of Companies (Petropavlovsk), has announced that it has completed the initial test periods at the processing facilities at its Kuranakh titanomagnetite and ilmenite project situated in Russia's Amur region, which borders the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, and that in 2010 it expects the concentrate output from the project to total 133,000 mt.
Accordingly, out of the total expected 2010 output, 130,000 mt will be titanomagnetite concentrate with an average grade of 62.2 percent, and 3,000 mt will consist of ilmenite concentrate with an average grade of 48.5 percent.
IRC said that the titanomagnetite circuit is reaching full capacity as expected and sales are ongoing with an average price of $125/mt achieved. "The current realized price is slightly lower than the market price due to the ramp-up process. The company expects to achieve a price increase during 2011 to achieve a price closer to the market prices," said the company in its statement.
In 2011, IRC expects to produce 800,000-830,000 mt of titanomagnetite concentrate and 65,000-70,000 mt of ilmenite concentrate.