Development of Dobrovolnoye uranium mine begins

Friday, 12 November 2021

The development is being undertaken by Rosatom's uranium mining subsidiary ARMZ and its own subsidiary, JSC Dalur. ARMZ announced today that its geological exploration and drilling subsidiary Rusburmash has started work on pit drilling, landfilling and the construction of access roads. In time, there will be a fully equipped in-situ leach production site and a process block as well as office and amenity buildings, warehouses and other facilities.

ARMZ has said that commissioning the Dobrovolnoye deposit - which has estimated reserves of 7067 tU - will enable Dalur to increase its volume of uranium recovery from the current 590 tonnes per year to 700 tonnes by 2025.

Official permission from the Russian government to develop the deposit was granted in 2017, and a consultation with local people in 2019 specified that no construction of pilot operations was to take place on the flood-prone areas of the Tobol River. Construction of the pilot operations began in October 2020.

"The Dobrovolnoye deposit is comparable in size with the Dalmatovskoye deposit that we have been developing since 1984," said Dinis Ezhurov, director general of Dalur. "The mining operations in the Zverinogolovsky District will create more than 300 new jobs and provide strategic metal supplies for the nuclear industry for several decades."

Dobrovolnoye is in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region of Russia, about 1350 kilometres east of Moscow.