Metalloinvest starts building 80 bln ruble HBI plant near Kursk - authorities

KURSK. July 18 (Interfax) - Mikhailovsky HBI LLC has begun building a plant to produce hot briquetted iron (HBI) in the Zheleznogorsk district of Kursk Region, the region's acting governor, Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram.

"Despite the difficult time for the region, investors have not abandoned the implementation of previously planned projects. The plant will create more than 400 jobs. The feedstock for HBI production will be pellets from the Mikhailovsky GOK pellet plant located next door. About 80 billion rubles will be invested in construction. The plant is scheduled to start up in 2028," Khinshtein said.

The plant will be built using the latest green metallurgy technologies, he added.

It was reported earlier that Mikhailovsky HBI plans to build a complex to produce HBI in Kursk Region at a cost of 80.5 billion rubles. The company will be the anchor investor in the Trety Polyus special economic zone (SEZ).

News of this project was initially reported at the beginning of 2021. At the time, the plan was to open a plant with capacity of more than 2 million tonnes per year in the first half of 2024. The cost of the project then was estimated at more than 40 billion rubles.

Mikhailovsky HBI, which was registered in Zheleznogorsk in 2021, is 55% owned by USM Metalloinvest LLC and 45% by JSC A.V. Varichev Mikhailovsky GOK, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities showed. USM Metalloinvest LLC was, as of the end of June 2024, the sole owner of Metalloinvest, the largest producer of iron ore in Russia and the CIS. The group includes iron ore mining and processing complexes Mikhailovsky GOK and Lebedinsky GOK and the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant.