Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) launched its Sosnovskiy mine in the course of a solemn opening ceremony last Friday.

The enterprise received the license allowing the company to develop this Chelyabinsk Region-based black iron ore deposit in October 2003. In February 2007, MMK bought a 51% shareholding in Bakalskoye Mine Group, the Urals’ oldest iron ore mining enterprise. MMK BOD Chairman Viktor Rashnikov says this transaction was part of the company’s raw-material base building strategy, since MMK intended to build one through developing the local iron ore deposits. In September 2007, MMK handed its license over to Bakalskoye Mine Group.

Sosnovskiy mine is meant to be used for ore mining for the next forty years, at least. The deposit’s estimated capacity comes to 70 million tons of iron ore, with 370,000 tons of ore to be extracted as soon as this year. 500,000 more tons of ore will be produced in 2010. Once the mine has reached its full capacity, its output is expected to reach about 1 million tons of sintered iron ore a year. The mine will also serve as a place for dry magnetic separation processing, MMK’s PR Department reports.