Primorye tungsten co to get back license soon - Ishayev

VLADIVOSTOK, June 17 (Itar-Tass) - The issue of the return of the ore extraction license to the Lermontov tungsten deposit in the Primorsky Territory will be considered in the coming days. This will make it possible to resume production at the Mining and Processing Combine in the Svetlogorye settlement, Russian president's plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern federal district Viktor Ishayev said on Wednesday after a meeting he held in the settlement with representatives of the owner of the enterprise, Primorsky Territory administration and trade union. "On Friday, after our appeal to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Subsoil Use Agency (Rosnedra) will consider the issue of the return of the license to the owner," he promised. "The owner has assumed obligations and is preparing a project so that the enterprise could resume operation, but with the secondary resources, because the cost of product in this case will be lower. Consequently, it will be possible to lower the price and at the same time get profit and enter the market with this product," the RF president's plenipotentiary representative noted. According to an agreement signed on Wednesday on the results of the meeting in Svetlogorye, from July 17 the property of the Russky Volfram (Russian Wolfram) company is transferred on lease to the territorial enterprise Primteploenergo for a term of 5 years. The sides assume the obligations to conclude before June 19 a contractor's agreement on the works linked with the exploitation of the Lermontov tungsten deposit, and from July 1 this year the former workers of the Russky Volfram branch are to begin their work in the new structure. Before July 1, 2009 the sides are to work out a plan of measures for the preparation of documentation for the resumption of extraction and processing of ore. The signed agreement also envisages a number of measures aimed at ensuring employment of the Svetlogorye population. Three wood processing enterprises and a branch of the Primavtodor company will soon start work in the settlement. Ishayev stressed that "it is impossible to settle everything in one day." "The territorial administration has assume the obligation to immediately settle emerging social issues, and the office of the president' s plenipotentiary representative will control the fulfilment of these obligations," said the official adding that Russky Volfram is not the most complicated enterprise of the Primorsky Territory and the Far Eastern federal district. He also noted that the "administration of the Primorsky Territory assumed the obligation to create additional jobs in the shortest possible time. The work is already being carried out. Several dozen additional jobs will be created at local enterprises of the forestry industry. It is planned to develop wood processing in Svetlogorye," the presidential plenipotentiary representative noted. "The resumption of production at Russky Volfram, employment of those who lost jobs at the enterprise will finally make it possible to ease the social tension in the settlement," the official said. "We will provide support to the territorial administration in the settlement of social problems of Svetlogorye," Ishayev emphasised. The owner of the Primorsky Territory's branch of the Russky Volfram enterprise has leased it for a term of five years to the Primteploenergo regional utility company. Itar-Tass was told at the press centre of the administration of the Primorsky Territory on Tuesday that according to the document, the owner of the plant – the Russky Volfram tungsten company leases to Primteploenergo for 5 years the enterprise's key assets ensuring the production process. The administration said that the rent will be "symbolical," but did not disclose the sum of the deal. "A special commission in the Svetlogorye settlement is currently engaged in stock taking of the enterprise's property," said the press centre. According to the head of the trade union committee of the Svetlogorye enterprise, Leonid Otnyakin, the workers of the enterprise have "approved the decision on the transfer of the enterprise to a state-run structure for management." "The people who are tired of the lack of money, criminal omission and inefficient work of the owners of the enterprise, now have got confidence in the future," he said.