[ferro-alloys.com]Bystrinsky Mining and Processing Plant (Bystrinsky GOK, Trans-Baikal Territory), having recently started selling copper concentrate, has added magnetite (iron ore) concentrate to its sales mix. The plant has completed its first 680 t shipment of the product to China, with another 10,000 t planned to follow in May.

The volumes sold were produced during the pre-commissioning stage, and the plant is already outputting gold concentrate while making final tweaks to the gravitation enrichment process. The aim of the continuing commissioning process is to reach a stable hourly throughput of high-quality products.

In April, the plant began selling copper concentrate. Chinese counterparts, who are the main consumers of the plant’s iron ore and copper concentrates, bought 4,500 t of the product. Bystrinsky GOK also plans to supply part of its output to the domestic market and is currently discussing iron ore concentrate deliveries with Evraz, a major Russian steel producer.

Markus Meurer, Nornickel’s head of global sales, says the Company has already signed long-term contracts to sell copper and magnetite concentrates. In addition to China and Russia, other target markets include Japan and South Korea.

Nornickel constructed Bystrinsky GOK in a hard-to-reach area of the Trans-Baikal Territory in late 2017. After reaching the design capacity, the plant will be producing up to 3.5 mt of magnetite concentrate and 260,000 t of copper concentrate.

• [Editor:王可]