Russian Vitriol Co opens ferrous sulfate plant in Bashkortostan

UFA. May 22 (Interfax) - Russian Vitriol Company has become the first in Russia to start producing ferrous sulfate monohydrate at a facility in the Blagoveschensk priority development area in its home region of Bashkortostan, the federal Industrial Development Fund (IDF) reported.

"Overall investment in the development of the plant amounted to 86 million rubles, of which the federal IDF provided 58.5 million rubles and the Industrial Development Fund of the Republic of Bashkortostan 6.5 million rubles in the form of subsidized loans," the press release said.

The company used the borrowed funds to acquire equipment, including a drying production line and packaging line, and it used its own funds to buy a universal line for mixing dry bulk products and an automatic pallet packer.

"Exclusively domestic feedstock is used in the manufacture of the product; the level of localization is 100%. The process of obtaining ferrous sulfate monohydrate includes more than 10 stages. The key ones are preparing the ferrous sulfate solution, evaporating the solution, crystallization in a vacuum, centrifugation for condensation of the suspension with subsequent drying of obtained crystals to the necessary characteristics of the finished product," the release said.

Ferrous (II) sulfate monohydrate, which is used as a fertilizer and in production of premixes for enriching feed additives for animals, was previously imported from China.

Once the plant reaches design capacity, the company plans to produce up to 3,600 tonnes of the product per year. The new facility is expected to reduce the share of imports to 55%.

It was reported that the project would create 34 jobs. The company previously invested over 140 million rubles in developing technology to produce copper sulfate in a project that created 69 jobs.

Russian Vitriol Company makes chemical products that are used in various fields, from mining and water treatment to agriculture. The company was registered in 2021 and is engaged in producing "other inorganic basic chemicals," the Unified State Register of Legal Entities showed. It is owned by its director Paata Akhalaia.