Russia’s copper reserves were over 100 million tons as of 2015 year-end and they are not depleted at all, Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoi said.
“Russia is world’s third by copper resources and overcame the level of 100 million tons in 2015, and is sixth by production, supporting near 4-5% of global production”, Donskoi said.
The reserves increment was nearly 7 million tons under ABC1+C2 categories last year.
Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company – the largest copper producer in Russia – will cut copper production by 10% due to depletion of resources.
“Speaking about depletion of reserves is definitely the dramatization. Production will grow along with the price increase, which fell at least 1.5 times from 2011. The demand for subsoil areas is not declining at the same time: 18 licenses were issued in 2015”, Donskoi said.
At the same time, huge volumes of copper are mined by underground method and this entails complication of geotechnical and economic conditions for operation of such deposits, the Minister added. (TASS/Ukrainian Metal)