World's largest titanium maker to start mining metal in Russia

The world's largest titanium producer, Russian corporation VSMPO-Avisma, plans to mine raw materials on its own for its production in Russia, RBC reports with reference to the press service of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use (Rosnedra).

Since June, the company has been expressing interest in obtaining the Central Titanium-Zirconium deposit in the Tambov region for use, the agency said. Rosnedra prepares the eastern part of this field for inclusion in the list of licensing on auction terms.

VSMPO-Avisma's main supplier of ilmenite, a raw material for titanium production, was Ukraine. The raw material used to be shipped from the Volnogorsk mining and processing plant in the Dnepropetrovsk region, as well as from the Irshansky plant in the Zhytomyr region.

Earlier it was reported that Ukraine's titanium manufacturer Velta wanted to affect exports of this metal from Russia. In May, the company hired Yorktown Solutions, a Washington-based consulting firm, in an effort to make Western companies refuse from divest Russian titanium.