Mykolaiv Alumina Plant May Be Left Without Funding

About 48 million tons of red sludge are stored in sludge fields near Mykolaiv. Mykolaiv Alumina Plant may soon lose funding for their maintenance.

This was reported by Alla Ryazhskikh, head of the Standing Committee on Ecology of the Mykolaiv Regional Council.

She, along with representatives of the State Environmental Inspectorate and Oleksandra Efimenko, head of the environmental department of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, met with MGZ management to discuss the plant's current problems and ways to solve them.

According to Ms. Ryazhsky, the two sludge fields are not only a potentially hazardous facility for the region's ecology, but also contain valuable elements that can be considered a "treasure" according to the periodic table. She also criticized the attitude of the State Property Fund to the enterprise, emphasizing that the agency has little or no control over the plant, although its employees are trying to keep the facility in working order under difficult conditions.

According to the MP, a representative of the State Property Fund has visited MGZ only once in four years, and even that visit was made possible by the plant's management.

Ms. Ryazhskikh added that MGZ may soon run out of funds to maintain the sludge fields. The loss of the critical enterprise status has led to power outages, which threatens to dry out the fields in the heat and spread harmful dust into the atmosphere. The MP noted that the lack of continuous operation of pumping stations makes the situation environmentally dangerous.

The problem of red sludge in Mykolaiv has been discussed since 2012-2013, but no solution has been found. In 2022, after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the plant stopped working, was confiscated and transferred to state ownership. Currently, the State Property Fund is looking for an investor to reopen the plant.

Last year, the High Anti-Corruption Court ruled to confiscate bauxite and alumina belonging to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska for a total of over UAH 2.4 billion. These assets were located at the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant.

Анна Бальчінос