Russian steel mill Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has announced that it has started mining operations at its Sosnovsky iron ore deposit, located in Russia's Chelyabinsk region at a distance of 360 km from MMK's steel production site.
The iron ore reserves at MMK's Sosnovsky deposit are estimated at 70 million mt, and are expected to allow the company to extract ore for about 40 years. In 2009, MMK plans to extract 370,000 mt of ore, while the volume is expected to rise to 500,000 mt in 2010. After reaching the designed output capacity, the annual extraction volume at the Sosnovsky deposit will amount to 2-2.5 million mt of ore. In addition, more than one million mt of sinter is to be produced annually at the deposit by a dry magnetic separation method.
The license to develop the Sosnovsky iron ore deposit was obtained by MMK in October 2003. Following the acquisition by MMK in February 2007of 51 percent of the iron ore producing company Bakalskoe Rudoupravlenie, in September 2007 MMK transferred to this company the license to develop the Sosnovsky deposit.