(Reuters) – Russian state development bank VEB will invest more than 1.1 trillion roubles ($13.40 billion) to develop a copper mine in Chukotka in the far east of the country, the government said on Saturday.
The development of the Baimskaya copper deposit, first discovered in 1972, is expected to create some 6,000 jobs and generate more than three trillion roubles in tax revenue, a government press release said.
Chukotka is a mountainous region and the easternmost federal subject of Russia. About half of it is located above the Arctic Circle.
Once operable, the deposit will boost Russia’s copper production by 25% and its gold production by 4%.
“We continue to build not just a mining and processing plant, but a powerful and technologically-advanced industrial complex that will strengthen Russia’s position in the global market and become a new point of growth in the Arctic,” said Georgy Fotin, general director of the Baimskaya Management Company LLC.
President Vladimir Putin has named the Arctic as one of Russia’s key areas of economic interest, and has ramped up commerce via the Northern Sea Route as Moscow shifts trade towards Asia and away from Europe due to Western sanctions.
Development of the Baimskaya deposit will see annual cargo traffic along the NSR increase by two million metric tons, the government said on Saturday.
($1 = 82.1000 roubles)
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
