XT (formerly known as Xstrata Technology) has officially opened a new office in Moscow.
The opening was attended by major Russian mining companies such as Norilsk Nickel, Russian Platinum, and MBC Resources, whilst the opening speech was given by Australian ambassador to Russia, Paul Myler, who highlighted the potential for METS companies such as XT in Russia.
Australian mining engineering and services companies have been looking more towards the growing number of opportunities in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Lindsay Clark, GM for minerals processing at XT, said the company recognised the importance of Russia and the CIS regions, especially the potential of the future projects and expansions in these regions.
“We have been working in the region for some time, from our very first IsaMill in Kyrgyzstan Republic, to other recent IsaMill and Jameson Cell projects in Russia and Kazakhstan,” Clark said.
“We have also been involved with the Saint-Petersburg Mining Institute (SPMI), as well as installing small scale IsaMill testing equipment at TOMS in Irkutsk and Jameson Cell testing equipment at SibNIIugleobogaschenie, coal institute in Siberia. These units will enable our clients to do testwork closer to their project rather than sending samples overseas which can be time consuming.
“We believe many of these projects could benefit from improved efficiency and process gains that XT’s technology delivers to projects worldwide”.
XT CEO Joe Pease stated that the opening of this new office in Moscow is part of the company’s aim of establishing a presence in mining regions around the world.
“We have created offices in countries with strong mining expertise such as in Canada, Chile and South Africa over the years, to be more accessable to our clients. This has worked well, and we expect being closer to our clients in Russia and the CIS will benefit them as well as XT in the future,” Pease said.
Following the acquisition of Xstrata by Glencore, XT is now a fully owned subsidiary of Glencore.