Given the adopted course toward import substitution, mining these metals in Russia is highly relevant because they are used in electronics and the military and space industries.
Today tungsten, molybdenum, and lithium are mostly mined abroad. For example, South America is currently the world’s main lithium supplier, but Irkutsk Region also has sources of this raw material, and institute staff are developing innovative extraction technologies. Lithium is used to make batteries for electric vehicles and is used in household appliances and various gadgets.
Tungsten and molybdenum were once mined in Russia, but this raw material is now also purchased abroad. The deposits remain, and according to Arkady Koblov, head of the mineral processing department at JSC Irigiredmet, the institute’s task is to develop an optimal technology for obtaining these materials for further use in Russia.
Russia and CIS countries also have gold-uranium deposits, but these components are currently extracted separately. Irkutsk scientists have developed a new technology that allows simultaneous extraction of gold and uranium from the subsurface. It has already passed laboratory studies, and several patents have been created.
“The state will be able to obtain two valuable components from this deposit at once — both uranium and gold. And not stretch this over decades. Because working the same uranium deposits takes tens of years and only then can gold, for example, be extracted. We propose extracting gold and uranium simultaneously. And we are now conducting semi-industrial tests of this technology,” said Evgeny Musin, deputy general director for research at JSC Irigiredmet.
