PhosAgro Begins Trial of New +10 m Level at Apatit's Kirovsky Mine

KIROVSK, Russia, Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PhosAgro announces the launch of industrial trial runs for the new +10 m level at the Kirovsky mine of the Apatit mining and beneficiation plant. The first 400-tonne batch of ore from the new level was delivered to the processing plant.

The Kirovsky mine remains the flagship mine of the Kirovsk branch of Apatit (PhosAgro Group). It implements key investment projects to develop the enterprise's ore and raw material base. Developing the +10 m level is the largest of them. It compensates for levels that are being shuttered and will not only maintain the mine's overall output volumes but will also increase them from 22.8 mln tonnes in 2021 to 25 mln tonnes of ore by 2025. The output of the +10 m level is expected to reach 1.6 mln tonnes of ore per year in 2022, 2.7 mln tonnes in 2023, and by 2028 it will reach 9.4 mln tonnes per year.

Around 2,000 people from more than 50 contractors were involved in the installation and preparation of the facility for operation. The work was carried out underground, without the use of cranes due to limited space.

"The most advanced technologies and technical solutions are used as part of the implementation of the investment project. In particular, we have installed ballastless rail tracks, railway rolling stock with an increased carrying capacity, crushing and haulage complexes with modern equipment, which provides the specified output of the continuous handling system of each floor side, as well as materials and technologies that extend the service life of structures," said Director of the Kirovsk Branch of Apatit Andrey Abrashitov.

The +10 m level development project began in December 2015. The investment project is expected to be completed in Q4 of 2023. Its financing will surpass RUB 26 billion over the next eight years.

"This is a real project of the future. Not only because it employs cutting-edge technology. These investments will shape the prospects of the Apatit plant and PhosAgro as a whole for decades to come, ensuring a dependable raw material foundation for mineral fertilizer producers. This is an essential contribution to the stable supply of eco-efficient mineral fertilizers to our priority domestic market, which is also in demand in more than 100 countries around the world," Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro commented.

About PhosAgro

PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P₂O₅ content of 39% and higher. PhosAgro's environmentally friendly fertilizers stand out for their high efficiency, and they do not lead to the contamination of soils with heavy metals.

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe (by total combined capacity for DAP/MAP/NP/NPK/NPS), the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock with a P₂O₅ content of 39%, a top-three producer of MAP/DAP globally, one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia, and Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to the RAFP)

PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, more than 50 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 102 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (GDRs) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.

More information about PhosAgro can be found on the website: www.phosagro.com.