The Director of capital investments at Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Gennady Sakharov, on 14 July signed the commissioning permit for facilities for the third construction phase at the Khiagda uranium mine production site. The sulphuric acid shop, back-up power unit and tare warehouse have already been commissioned. Rosatom’s uranium mining management holding, Atomredmetzoloto, said essential facilities at the company’s central production site were now completed.

The phase one facilities are the main production building, chemicals and end product warehouses, transformer substation, compressor building, and fire depot. They were commissioned for the commercial operation in May 2015. The second construction phase facilities resulted in the commissioning of the power complex, inter-site water supply systems, sodium nitrate preparation and storage.

Earlier, the Siberia, Far East and Transbaikalia Interregional Territorial Department for nuclear and radiation safety of Rostechnadzor had approved the facilities of the third construction phase. “Only by producing our own sulphuric acid at the production site we can provide for continuous increase in acidification and gradually commission the deposits at Istochnoye, Vershinnoye and then others,” Khiagda director general Alexander Glotov noted. The resources of the Vitimskoye Uranium Region are estimated at 350,000t of uranium, including 250,000t recoverable using in-situ leaching.