Engineering & Mining Journal

DEC 2015

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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The world's largest potash producer Uralkali plans to invest $4.5 billion during the next five years to implement a new development strategy to improve efficiencies and marketing structure, and increase its production capacity from 11 million metric tons per year (mt/y) of potassium chloride (KCl) in 2014 to 14.4 million mt/y of KCI in 2020. Employing more than 10,000, the company operates five mines and seven mills, located near the towns of Berezniki and Solikamsk in Russia's Perm Region. Management is planning radical reforms for almost all aspects of Uralkali's operations, as the company tries to distance itself from numerous past problems. During March, Uralkali adopted a new investment strategy to grow pro- duction. It had to abandon its previous plan to increase production capacity to 19 million mt of KCl by 2021 when its Solikamsk No. 2 mine suddenly flooded a little more than a year ago. The brine inflow caused a major sinkhole to form and collapse in a populated area, which created a huge negative public outcry. Some summer cottages fell into the sinkhole, but no lives were lost. 38 E&MJ; • DECEMBER 2015 www.e-mj.com U R A L K A L I Uralkali Tapers its Growth Strategy Recovering from the Solikamsk No. 2 flooding and other issues, the company charts a new course forward By Vladislav Vorotnikov The headframes at the Ust-Yayvinsky mine represent the beginning of $1.9 billion investment to add 2.5 million mt/y of KCI.

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