Business news

MINSK, 1 February (BelTA) – Belarus has plans to sign a concession agreement for the development of a precious metals deposit which contains platinum group metals, among others, Sergei Mamchik, the director of the geology department at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Protection, said in a press conference at BelTA’s press center on 1 February.

The specialist explained that one of the deposits discovered in Belarus contains precious metals, including platinum group metals. The country now plans to involve concessionaires in its exploitation and development. “The deposit is a promising one as it has a considerable content of precious metals. A decision has been made to sign a concession agreement with private companies for mine planning and development of the deposit, since it is not among the country’s mineral development priorities,” Sergei Mamchik explained.

Sergei Mamchik also commented on the prospects for gold exploration in Belarus. “There is gold in the territory of Belarus, but it is widely dispersed over a wide distance, and no big concentrations have been discovered so far,” the expert said. The gold exploration works detected some gold in deep layers. Efforts have been made to develop a method for extracting the precious metal. However, presently there are no large-scale projects in this field. “At present, we have no promising gold deposits,” Sergei Mamchik said.