Russia's Metropol investment house said on Monday it had reached a preliminary agreement with two Chinese mining firms which could extend it a loan to build a zinc ore enrichment plant in Russia. Within a month Metropol will prepare a detailed proposal to Shui Kou Shan Nonferrous Metals Group Ltd and Taizhou Huatian Industry Co on loan terms to finance the project, spokesman Filipp Chistov said.
"We intend to supply concentrate from the plant primarily to domestic consumers and export some of it," he said.
Russia's top zinc producer, Chelyabinsk, has said it would be forced to cut output of the metal this year due to a shortage of concentrate on the domestic market.
Metropol plans to build a mine with a capacity to extract up to two million tonnes of ore per year and the concentrator at the Ozernoye deposit in the southern Urals republic of Buryatia.
The deposit has proven reserves of 104.96 million tonnes of ore and probable reserves of another 23.2 million tonnes with zinc content of around 7 percent and 1.25 percent of lead.
Chistov said Metropol expected to start building infrastructure for the concentrator in January 2006 and the plant itself some six months later.
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