Public joint-stock company United Mining-Chemical Company, managing Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (Dnipropetrovsk region) and Irshansk Mining and Processing Combine (Zhytomyr region), in four years after its creation has sent over UAH 1 billion in technical re-equipment and upgrade of assets, and its charter capital grew to UAH 3 billion in 2018 from UAH 1.9 billion in 2017.

Acting Board Chairman Oleksandr Hladushko said in an interview posted on the company's corporate website on Tuesday that on August 12, the company will celebrate the fourth anniversary.

"Our branches were returned from the lease to the management of United Mining-Chemical Company in September 2014. And the main task that the government put at that time was to increase the payments to the national budget, which is impossible without seeing profit… We successfully coped with this task: if in 2014 the state received taxes and mandatory payments from the company at the level of UAH 16.9 million, then in 2017 it was UAH 875.7 million," Hladushko said.

At the same time, he recalled that in 2017, the company paid dividends to the state in the amount of UAH 321.8 million, this year - almost UAH 333 million.

The head of the company pointed to the technical readiness of the branches to independently perform production tasks: "If immediately after the lease, the availability of special equipment did not exceed 50%, then in 2018 it grew almost twice thanks to investments and reached 90%, especially at Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine.

The top manager added that the company has substantially updated the fixed assets of the branches: from the end of last year 47 transport units were purchased for the combines, of which 24 - special equipment. Almost UAH 200 million is invested only in the renovation of the transport fleet of the branches.

"The total amount of investment in the technical re-equipment and renewal of assets at this stage exceeded UAH 1 billion. The fact that the charter capital increased from UAH 1.9 billion in 2017 to UAH 3 billion in 2018 is evidence of this," he said.

Commenting on the current situation, Hladushko expressed the opinion that the company is confidently working on a highly competitive global titanium market.

"But the future of such an enterprise as ours is impossible without the prospect of developing new areas. So we are looking forward to the government's decision to start developing 154 hectares by Irshansk combine in Korosten and Khoroshiv districts at the Mizhrichenske field. The combine will reconstruct concentrator No. 8 and build new factory No. 9 for processing new products," the top manager said.

He also said that it is planned to build a factory for the processing of the so-called "tails" at Vilnohirsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine: "While the plant has no prospects for developing new areas, it is necessary to switch it to re-processing and additional withdrawal of useful products from the tailing farm."

"These plans for the branches envisage significant investments - more than UAH 200 million. A painstaking routine work is carried out to produce the necessary documentation, an economic calculation of the feasibility of introducing a particular technology is being conducted," Hladushko said.