Udokan Copper mulls entering markets of India, Vietnam

MOSCOW, Sep 5 (PRIME) -- Russian copper company Udokan Copper plans to sell the lion’s share of its production to China, but it is also considering entering the markets of India and Vietnam, Yerkozha Akylbek, chairman of the company’s board of directors, told PRIME on Monday.

“Taking into account the geographical location and the great potential of the Chinese market, it will be a priority for us, and Udokan Copper expects the major share of metal to go to China. We are already working on marketing our products, and establishing contacts with the end consumers. Speaking of the other Asian countries, we are also considering sales of copper to India and Vietnam,” he said.

China consumes more than 50% of the global copper production, and new industries like production of electric cars will need more copper, he said.

Akylbek also said that the company targets cutting CO2 emissions of its facilities by 75% until 2035 and wants to sign direct bilateral agreements with power producers that use low-carbon and renewable power sources, for instance, with hydropower company RusHydro during the ongoing Eastern Economic Forum, he said.

Udokan Copper will launch a beneficiation facility and a hydrometallurgical plant in near Lake Baikal until 2023 in spite of the external political factors and the pandemic. The plants’ combined capacity should reach 135,000 tonnes of copper per year, and at the second stage that the company plans to launch later the capacity will rise to 400,000 tonnes, he said.

The company is a unit of USM Holding of tycoon Alisher Usmanov. It develops the Udokan copper field with resources of 26.7 million tonnes of copper under the JORC Code.

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