The State Enterprise Eastern Mining and Processing Plant (SkhidGZK) continues implementing measures to optimize expenditures, reorganize its corporate structure and prepare for corporatization.
Over the past four months, the enterprise has saved more than UAH 32 million through cost optimization, improved transparency and enhanced competition in procurement procedures. The savings represent the difference between the amounts specified in suppliers’ initial bids and the value of the contracts ultimately concluded.
Savings on certain procurement items exceeded UAH 4 million. For example, the enterprise signed a contract for the purchase of 500 tonnes of nitric acid at a price 25% lower than the initial supplier proposal and 10% lower than under contracts concluded in previous years. These results were achieved by attracting a larger number of bidders, including manufacturers and their authorized representatives.
The enterprise is also continuing to optimize operating costs by performing core operational tasks in-house rather than relying on external contractors. To this end, it plans to procure additional equipment and fill vacant technical positions, enabling SkhidGZK to independently carry out its statutory activities while directing the resulting savings toward increasing uranium oxide concentrate production.
As a reminder, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted at first reading the Government’s draft Law “On the Joint Stock Company ‘Eastern Mining and Processing Plant’”, which provides for the corporatization of the enterprise.
The adoption of the law will pave the way for SkhidGZK’s future integration into JSC NNEGC Energoatom and the implementation of a strategy to establish a vertically integrated holding company covering the entire nuclear fuel cycle — from uranium mining and uranium concentrate production to electricity generation.
An updated development plan has also been prepared, providing for comprehensive measures to stabilize and modernize the enterprise, including the procurement of mining equipment, construction of new mining levels, gradual expansion of uranium oxide concentrate production, modernization of mine hoisting systems and ventilation systems, as well as other investment projects. To support these initiatives, SkhidGZK has received a UAH 555 million loan at the initiative of the Ministry of Energy.
