Metalloinvest claims iron ore reserves top spot
Metalloinvest is reporting top spot in the iron ore reserves league with 15.4 billion tonnes as of January 2021. The assessment was carried out by UK international consultancy verifier, SRK.
Metalloinvest CEO Nazim Efendiev said: “The new reserve estimate indicates that Metalloinvest has become the world leader in terms of the size and life cycle of iron ore reserves among all mining and metallurgical companies. Over the 11 years since the previous assessment of reserves, our enterprises have produced around 1.7 billion tonnes of iron ore."
Even though international iron ore standards have significantly tightened, the company has managed to grow thanks to additional exploration of deposits, new geological models, improved planning of mining operations, improved quality of commercial products and the development of oxidised quartzite enrichment technology, he added.
When assessing reserves, the three factors taken into consideration were the geological model of the deposits, the forecast volume of production of commercial iron ore, and the estimated long-term production of high value-added products (pellets and HBI/ DRI).
This month has also seen Metalloinvest join the National ESG Alliance.
Ivan Streshinsky, CEO of USM and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metalloinvest, said: “We are confident that bringing the largest Russian companies together will help to find effective solutions for climate change and the green transformation of industry. Metalloinvest has accumulated significant experience in the production of iron ore raw materials and steel with a low carbon footprint and is interested in cooperating to develop new technologies. We are also ready to share practices on the implementation of sustainability principles in corporate governance."
Lebedinsky GOK (part of Metalloinvest) recently passed a re-certification audit of its quality management system (QMS) for compliance with the international standard ISO 9001:2015. The audit was conducted in October by experts from the British Standards Institution (BSI), a recognised global leader in international certification.
The metals sector is set to continue its rebound from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through 2022. According to the newly released 2022 Metals and Mining Outlook from S&P Global Market Intelligence, pent-up consumer spending, government stimulus efforts and the accelerating energy transition will continue to drive demand, prices and exploration budgets.
"While we anticipate that metals prices will slip moderately in 2022 from their current highs, medium-term supply constraints are setting the stage for historically above-average prices through to 2025 – driven mostly by increasing demand for materials used in the accelerating global energy transition," said Mark Ferguson, research director with S&P Global Market Intelligence's Metals and Mining Research team.
However the combination of underlying market tightness, potential supply disruptions and project delays, global supply chain issues and power constraints is likely to increase iron ore price volatility into next year.
