Titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma could be preparing to mine ilmenite in Ukraine, Interfax reported Friday.
The corporation said it had received direct ownership of 75 percent of the Cyprus-registered Limpieza. A representative of the corporation declined to say why the asset had been acquired.
The Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee in December 2011 cleared Limpieza to buy a controlling stake in the Demurinsky Mining and Concentrating Plant, which has mined ilmenite sands at the Volchansky titanium and zirconium deposit in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region since 2002. Ukraine's Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant processes the ilmenite. The plant supplies half the ilmenite concentrate produced in Europe and the CIS.
(MT)
