L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

ite production at Komi to reach 6.5 Mt/yr in the 2009-10 period.
Construction of the alumina plant in Sosnogorsk had not begun, and
the functioning of the alumina plant would depend on its obtaining
an uninterrupted supply of bauxite from the Komi project when it
achieved its design capacity to produce 6.5 Mt/yr of bauxite. The
completion of the Komi project would considerably reduce the Russian
aluminum industry’s dependence on foreign countries for bauxite
and alumina.
RUSAL planned to increase primary aluminum production to
4.4 Mt in 2008 and to 6.2 Mt in 2013, and most of the increased
output would go to China. RUSAL’s acting director for marketing
and sales said that Asia would account for 50% of RUSAL’s aluminum
sales by 2015, of which 70% totaling more than one-third of
RUSAL’s output would go to China. Also, the director predicted
that Russia’s consumption of aluminum could increase by an average
of 11% per year until 2015.
The bauxite-alumina complex now under construction in the
Komi Republic is an example of putting large mineral reserves
into effective commercial development and simultaneous organization
of their advanced processing, which is unique for presentday
Russia. 8
Despite existing problems, the bauxite-alumina complex is the
most large-scale, fast-moving and promising project among the investment
projects implemented in the mining industry of the republic.
The main practical outcome of the project is obvious: the construction
of the Sredne-Timansky bauxite mine that has been operating
for over ten years. To date, over 11 million tons of ore have been
supplied to Russian alumina and aluminum plants. Bauxite consumers
are the Uralsky aluminum, Boxitogorsky alumina, Bogoslovsky
aluminum, and Chelyabinsky abrasive plants. The implementation
of the whole project will allow a reduction in alumina imports and
meeting up to 70% of the Russian aluminum industry’s demand with
domestic raw material. Thousands of new jobs will be created in
primary and related productions and in small business; regional domestic
product of the Komi Republic will increase by 30% and Russia’s
tax base by RUB7 billion. 9
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