How "Ilmenit" at the suggestion of Rosatom turned out to be "rubber"

The launch of the second stage of the Tugansk Mining and Processing Plant (TGOK) Ilmenit was postponed to 2029-2030 - according to the official version, due to bureaucratic reasons. According to various estimates, Rosatom allocated about 20 billion rubles for the project, but they risk "dissolving" without reaching the goal.

At the same time, it is vital to open Tugan-2, since without it is not necessary to close the issue of import substitution for titanium and zirconium for Russia, said the chief technologist of the enterprise Sergei Belonogov.

The Moscow Post correspondent in the Tomsk region understood what was happening on the site.

"Help" Mironchik

Until 2021, TGOK belonged to three offshore companies. The main one with a 90% stake was Africa Enterprises Limited, according to Vedomosti, affiliated with a real estate businessman in Moscow, owner and director of the Izurium investment fund Roman Mironchik. It was Izurirum that built the first stage of the plant and already Rosatom opened it in 2021.

A lot of assets are registered on Mironchik. MFIs, real estate, restaurants and medical laboratories. Mr. Mironchik may represent the interests of Alexei Krapivin, co-owner of the scandalous GC 1520, which appeared in the case of billionaire colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko. Mironchik is a co-owner of the Bakhrushin House office complex and the Solnechny II shopping center, which are located in Moscow. This business is associated with Krapivin.

How TGOC ended up with Africa Enterprises Limited is not advertised. But at the time of the transition of his control under the auspices of Rosatom, such a connection was no longer traced in official sources. At the same time, the offshore gave Rosatom an enterprise with zero revenue and minus profit, but thanks to the injection of state money, after a year the indicators jumped sharply up.

Photo: Rusprofile

At the same time, almost two dozen cases "hang" on the company, in which counterparties try to recover different amounts for non-fulfillment of obligations. The background is not yet clear - the supplier complains about the events of which time ago, but we must think that all this will also fall on the shoulders of the state corporation. The concept of a "rubber budget" is well suited to cover the obligations of former owners who could withdraw money offshore, but apparently does not work when it is necessary to finish work on the creation of a strategically important asset on time.

Ecology - Not Counted

I must say that the very creation of the project ran into environmental difficulties: changing the thermal, hydrological and hydrochemical regimes and other processes in landscapes, restructuring the soils, transforming the vegetation cover until it is completely destroyed - here is a short list of what experts wrote about at the time of the analysis of the project.

Photo: VKR "Relief and geological structure of the Tugansky field of the Tomsk region," Olga Shvadlenko

At the same time, the GOK is located in the immediate vicinity of the village of Oktyabrskoye, Tomsk Region. Another big question is how much the story with the expansion of production, despite the fact that they are not going to resettle anyone, suits local residents.

Photo: Yandex Maps

Yet, if there was outrage, it was suppressed. The Web does not find information about the discontent of the population against construction or attempts to appeal to the governor about resettlement. Vladimir Mazur, appointed to this post in 2022, is considered the creature of the former head of the region, Sergei Zhvachkin, so there is nowhere to wait for help.

For example, he is stubbornly silent about the future of the campus, which should be created as part of the scandalous project "Education" - the one "thanks" to which the former deputy governor Yuri Gurdin was arrested in July last year on charges of embezzlement.

The Government allocates about 18 billion rubles for the implementation of this project. The object is planned to be commissioned by 2025. But I believe in it with difficulty.

Classics of the genre

As for Rosatom, which is headed by Alexei Likhachev, although many consider it to be the estate of Sergei Kiriyenko, we do not just doubt that the project will be implemented. The state corporation has repeatedly failed not such large-scale projects, "evaporating" billions of state funds.

For example, the construction of the Baltic NPP, whose investments were estimated at about 6 billion euros, excluding the construction of extremely expensive networks, without which the station cannot work. The nuclear power plant is located in the Kaliningrad region. Recall this site is separated from the main part of the Russian Federation, and Western sanctions are felt the most.

On February 11, 2016, a round table was held in Kaliningrad on the energy security of the Russian exclave, which indicated the capabilities of NATO and the European Union to leave the Kaliningrad region without electricity in "5-10 seconds." And now it seems to be planned to be completed by 2024, having additionally allocated 3 billion rubles. As they say, they realized in time.

This was supposed to look like an unfinished nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region. Photo: Baltic NPP (Rosatom)

How funds fly away in the corporation is clearly seen in the example of the construction in New Moscow of a gigafactory for the production of lithium-ion batteries, which can be used in electric vehicles and other equipment. So very quickly the figure of 27 million rubles needed to create it turned into 51 - and with such figures Rosatom went to the government.

In addition, this is not the first time the state corporation has taken a "bloodless" company. The same "Ranera," which is engaged in gigafactory, was part of the Rusnano left with debts and disadvantages, which at that time was managed by Anatoly Chubais, who left the country. When Rosatom got it, they began to pump it with money again. Of course, as we said, not Rosatomovsky, but government.

At the same time, at the end of 2022, the company received a net loss of 429 million rubles, the value of assets - minus 866 million rubles. This is the "investor."