Works under Yermakovskoe project are carried out in accordance with License UDE Nr 13303 TE for the extraction of fluorine-beryllium ore, which was issued on 4 October 2005 and is valid until 2025.

The licensed plot is located in Kizhinghinsky district of the Republic of Buryatia 46 km from Bada railway station, TransSiberian main line, 180 km from Ulan-Ude (asphalt  and unsealed roads) and 7 km from Novo-Kizhinghinsk industrial settlement with 2 000 population.

The Yermakovskoe deposit is the only profitable beryllium ore deposit in Russia and one of the richest beryllium deposits in the world.

Fluorine-beryllium reserves of the Yermakovskoe deposit were approved by the USSR State Reserves Committee Protocol Nr 6099 in 1970 in the amount of 1.7 MMT of ore. After the mining shutdown in 1989 the deposit still has 1.4MMT of ore  (C₁+C₂ categories) on the State Reserves Committee balance sheet.

The MBC Corporation plans to construct the Yermakovsky Mining and Metallurgical Plant (GMK).

Yermakovsky GMK planned output

Project implementation progress

• MBC Corporation has entrusted the FGUP “VNIPIpromtechnologiya” (“Rosatom”) with the designing of a technical project of mining and processing enterprise construction for production of Be concentrate. It is filed for approval with the FGU “Glavgosexpertiza of  Russia” ;
• Under the license agreement the land allotment for the Mining and Metallurgical Plant industrial site to be located in Kizhinginsky district, Yermakovsky open pit,  is in the process of issuing. Preparatory works have been carried out at the pit and Yermakovskoe site infrastructure facilities;
• Approval has been obtained to include the works on beryllium production development into the Federal target programme on those rare metals which are of the utmost importance for Russia’s strategic industries – aviation industry and rocket and space technologies, instrument making industry;
• The Yermakovskoe industrial site is provided with power and water supply, roads. The open pit and a shift camp are in good condition.
• There has been signed an agreement with the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMZ), Kazakhstan, on development of a joint Russian-Kazakh project of Yermakovsky Mining and Metallurgical Plant construction and UMZ beryllium production restructuring. 

Background

Within 1979-1989  Zabaikalsky GOK developed the deposit by open-cut mining  with  high-grade concentrates production. The Yermakovsky concentrates were supplied to Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMZ, Kazakhstan) for further processing into different kind of high-tech beryllium products.  Later on beryllium ore extraction was ceased and production was suspended. The Plant in Kazakhstan continues to process its own remaining since then concentrate reserves and supplies beryllium products to the world market, including USA, Russia and China.