UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 1, 2017. Russian Copper Company is interested in using the joint developments by Russian and German mining engineers, the company’s Vice President for Environmental & Industrial Safety Natalia Gonchar announced at the 10th Russian-German Raw Stuffs Forum in Saint Petersburg.

Russian Copper Company’s top manager took part in a discussion on Russian-German scientific and technological cooperation in the raw stuffs sector; it was decided to set up five work teams comprising researchers from Saint Petersburg State Mining University and Freiberg Mining Academy. The work teams will collaborate to deal with the most vital challenges in the two countries’ mining sectors.

According to Gonchar, Russian Copper Company sees three promising areas of cooperation here: all-round developments of copper deposits, waste recycling projects and reclamation of used-up mines, and making its production facilities more energy-efficient.

Gonchar said they were the first company within the post-Soviet territories to implement a porphyry copper ore (copper content: up to 0.4%) mining and processing project at Mikheyevsky Ore Mining & Processing Enterprise in Chelyabinsk Oblast. The company is also working on Tominsky porphyry copper ore deposit at the moment. Tominsky processing plant’s prospective tailings will be used to fill the old Korkinsky Mine, Europe’s largest coal pit. Korkinsky, which is no longer used for coal extraction, presents great danger to the Southern Urals’ environment, with ongoing endogenic fires and soil slip that could destroy nearby housing and social infrastructure facilities.