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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


Argun Industrial Mining and Chemical Association
Priargunskiy Mining and Processing Combined Works (PPGCHO)
Krasnokamensk 50°03'N 118°01'E

    Priargunskoye Production Mining Chemical Association
Krasnokamensk, Streltsovskiy, Chita Oblast
674665 Russia
Tel: +7-302452-5302, -5192, 
Fax: +7-302452-46911, -25121

The Argun Industrial Mining and Chemical Association is located in the Krasnokamensk District, the Chita Region, 18 km north-east of the town of Krasnokamensk. The Association was established in 1968, and intensively developed from 1970-1985, to mine, enrich and process uranium-molybdenum ores. Uranium is mined in the Strel'tsovskii ore region in three underground mines situated in south-east sector of Zabaikalije and the Tulukui open pit. It is the the last major uranium mine still operating in Russia, and among the largest uranium complexes in the world.

As recently as 1993, the Krasnokamensk uranium mines were reported to produce 32% of the total export value from Siberia. Uranium mining at Priargunskiy comprised around 4,000 t in 1990, and output had dropped to 2,300 t in 1993, and has continued to decline. The operations produced 5,000,000 pounds of uranium in 1995, though that production is only 56% of full capacity as reported by the London-based Uranium Institute.

Krasnokamensk was one of the most restricted places in Siberia before 1990. It is possible though far from certain that this complex was known as Chita-46 during the Soviet era. Chita-46 is now known as the Gornyy "Urban-Type Settlement" [Posyolok Gorodskogo Tipa - PGT] in Uletovskiy Rayon, and it has not otherwise been possible to associate this placename with a specific facility.

Waste management shortcomings have lead to extensive water pollution. Dumps of ores, the uranium open pit, a tailings dump, the Urtui coal pit, a hydrometallurgical plant (HMP) for enrichment of uranium and molybdenum, and the Krasnokamensk Heating and Power Plant (HPP) are sources of radioactive contamination for the surrounding territory. In light of the sharp decrease in uranium production and of the lack of financing for uranium mine conservation, the hazard of uncontrolled distribution of uranium-238 and uranium-235 isotopes and their decay products from processed deposits in geological massifs and from wastes on earth's surface has arisen.

Operations began with initial exploration in 1952, which progressed slowly until major deposits were discovered in 1967 after which industrial scale mining began. The complex of open pits, waste piles, uranium mills and processing plants at Krasnokamensk are in a 30-40 square kilometer valley, centered on a pit 500 meters deep and a kilometer wide.

At least 5,000,000 tons of waste rock and uranium mill tailings were generated annually in the mid-1990s. Barren rocks produced in mining and processing of uranium ores are kept in special dumps, which cover a total area of 2.73 km2. These rock dumps and tailings ponds are larger than any in the US, though rivaled in scale by some sites in Southern Africa, eastern Germany, Australia, and Canada. The dumps of unamenable ores are used, as a rule, for heap leaching to extract an additional product. Waste from heap leaching is used, in turn, in the site to fill worked-out areas.

Residential areas, which include thousands of log cabins and an array of cement apartment blocks which once housed 70,000 people, are surrounded by the pits, piles and headframes. The major concentration of housing is in the center of a low valley between hills up to 500 meters in elevation. The housing plan for Krasnokamensk concentrated apartment blocks in a low-lying area some 2-3 kilometers from the central pit. Other nearby settlements are interspersed among the dozens of headframes and processing buildings at the complex.

Chita Region is a remote and rarely visited Russian territory in the southeast of Siberia with vast but underdeveloped natural resources. Chita oblast, a Russian region rich in natural and industrial resources, is located on the border of China and Mongolia in Eastern Siberia. Minerals are a key source of Chita's wealth. The region is Russia's leading producer of uranium, and it is estimated that it could supply 40 percent of Russian tantalum and lithium. Local zinc, lead, molybdenum, rare metal, and fluorspar processing mills are the largest in Eastern Siberia, and there are significant deposits of copper, zirconium, titanium, and niobium.

Chita economic and geological specialists have identified the following priority projects:

  • Development of Udokan Copper Deposit: It is projected that the deposit could initially produce 7.5 million tons of copper ore annually, and production could double with the introduction of new equipment and technology. A business plan for the project was developed with the participation of Minproc Engineering company (Australia). A new railroad to Udokan will be built by the end of 2000.
  • Development of the Berezovskiy Iron Ore Deposit: Located 8 miles from the Chinese boarder, this deposit holds industrial reserves of about 437 million tons with concentration of iron from 36-53 percent. Two-thirds of the reserve can be strip-mined. The deposit could supply a metallurgical plant located 200 kilometers away in An-Shan (China). Investment is needed for development of the deposit and construction of an ore-dressing factory.
  • Zhirekenskiy Molybdenum-Mining Enterprise: Put into operation in 1989, the enterprise requires a USD 13 million investment to re-equip its facilities for annual production of 60 tons of molybdenum concentrate. The Zhirekenskiy deposit is located only seven kilometers from the Trans-Siberian railway and has markets for its product in China, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, as well as in Russia.
  • Spokoininskoye Tungsten Deposit: Orlovskiy Tungsten Mining Concentrating Plant needs a USD 6 million investment to develop mining and processing of 600,000 tons of complex tungsten and beryl ores in the Spokoinskoye deposit. Presently there is shortage of tungsten in the Russian market.

Remote, and dependent until recently on heavy federal subsidies, Chita is struggling through a challenging economic and social transition. The Chita region is experiencing a significant economic depression caused by economic and social reforms and the reduction of federal subsidizes. Many of the traditional customers for the region's minerals and timber have considerably decreased and even ceased operations.

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