Acron Group, Moscow, said it can now continue open-pit mining of apatite-nepheline at the Oleniy Ruchey deposit in Russia’s Murmansk region for two years longer than originally expected following a detailed geological exploration.
The mine, which is operated by Acron’s North-Western Phosphorous Co. (NWPC) subsidiary, had been set to close in 2023. However, its operating life will now be extended to 2025.
The mining extension follows a detailed exploration of the open pit’s southwestern side by NWPC geologists, and will result in an additional 2 million mt of apatite-nepheline ore being mined from the open pit’s southwestern side, Acron said.
The Russian group reported the Oleniy Ruchey open-pit mine set a new production record last month of 770,000 mt, with over 1 million mt of apatite-nepheline ore currently stockpiled in the storage area for further processing.
NWPC produced its first apatite concentrate in 2012, using ore produced from the mine.
The subsidiary operates an adjacent underground apatite-nepheline mine. Ore extraction began there in autumn 2017, but Acron has previously reported the ore from the underground operation contains less phosphorus than the ore from the open-pit mine at this stage of the underground mine’s development.