Phosphorite deposit has not found an owner

In Buryatia the auction to gain the license to develop the deposit at Ukhagol with estimated resources of 88.4 million tons of phosphorites failed because no bids had been received.

The auction was held by the Department for Subsoil Use in the Central Siberian District. The starting price amounted to 155 million rubles (approximately $ 2.350 million).

‘This is a very interesting and promising field deposit. There is a huge shortage of phosphorous fertilizers, especially in Siberia and in the Far East,’ commented Evgeny Kislov, Head of the Laboratory of Geochemistry and Ore-Forming Processes of the Geological Institute of the SB RAS. ‘But it is a large-capacity field and it requires great transport volumes both to and from the deposit. The existing road will not cope with these volumes; fundamentally, a railroad needs to be built there. This is extremely cost consuming.’