OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2012. There are plans to allocate USD 1.5 billion for Slavkali company to build a new potash factory in Belarus, Slavkali owner, prominent Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriyev told on 3 April. Earlier that day he had taken part in the government session held by Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich to discuss the implementation of the project.

“We are in the initial phase of the project – a company has been created, mine allotments have been granted, personnel have been hired, the budget has been passed, the contract for designing has been signed,” said Mikhail Gutseriyev. “Several dozens of millions of US dollars have been spent. Another USD 100 million will be spent by the end of the year”. The total investments in the project are estimated at USD 1.5 billion.

Design work is expected to be finished by summer – autumn 2013. After that the construction of a mine and the factory itself will begin, said the businessman.

In turn, Mikhail Myasnikovich said the major investment project was important for Belarus. He suggested discussing what had been done already and what issues had to be addressed.

Slavkali is a daughter institution of the company GMC Global Energy plc (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The new ore mining and processing enterprise will be built at the Nezhinsky section of the Staroinskoye deposit of potash salts. That initially the output will be 1.1 million tonnes of potassium per annum.