Rostec tries to revive tungsten project in Kabardino-Balkaria

Rostec, which develops the Tomtorskoye deposit of rare earth metals, will be engaged in the mining of tungsten in Kabardino-Balkaria. The region has long and unsuccessfully looked for an investor for the resumption of the production at the Tyrnyauz field, and Rostec can get it without any competition. It’s necessary to invest about 14 billion rubles in the project and to rebuild the  mining and processing complex which has fallen into serious disrepair. The deposit contains about 40% of the Russian reserves of tungsten, which is necessary to Rostec for the machine tool industry and defense industries.

Yesterday at the meeting of the government commission on the development of the North Caucasus Federal District, the Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov proposed to transfer the suspended Tyrnyauz tungsten-molybdenum deposit in Kabardino-Balkaria to Rostec. The Minister suggested not to hold auction or tender on the development of the deposit, and to directly include it in the capital of Rostec. "Such a precedent, unfortunately, has not been created, we ask to do it as a pilot one," - he said, added that the initiative was discussed with the state corporation. Rostec explained to the Kommersant that the project "will fall under the control of" a sub-holding of the state-owned corporation "PT Global Resources", which deals with the Tomtor rare earth deposit in Yakutia together with ICT Group of Alexander Nesis. As part of the development of the North Caucasus Federal District the competition for the deposit "is to be held in the second quarter of 2016," Rostec explained, but the mechanism of the transfer of the license is being developed.