Private titanium ore miner decides against building plant in Ukraine, opting for US instead

The Ukrainian private company for the extraction of titanium ores Velta has frozen the project of building a factory for the production of titanium products in Kirovohrad Oblast. Instead of Ukraine, the company decided to build a plant in the United States, Velta president Andriy Brodskiy announced on Facebook.

"We made a decision to create the first enterprise for the processing of titanium raw materials outside of Ukraine. Let me say this: it was a forced and very difficult decision," wrote Brodskiy.

According to him, the decision to open production in the United States was influenced by the war.

"Everything was stopped by the war. Two Russian missiles flew near our future enterprise. Right above our mining and processing plant, our anti-aircraft defense shot down another one, there was a threat of a quick breakthrough of the front, and I decided not to give high-tech developments to the enemy," explained the company's president.

In Ukraine, Velta leased industrial premises in Novomoskovsk, started repair and construction works and the purchase of equipment. The company also received a long-term lease, near the mining and processing plant in Novomyrhorod, the territory of the former mine and started designing a large enterprise.

Velta has also revised plans to build a titanium plant in the UAE, which was announced in February 2021.

"The UAE took an incomprehensible position with regard to Ukraine, Kadyrov's men and Russian fugitives created almost like a hub there, and I stopped considering Dubai or Abu Dhabi as an attractive port," said Brodskiy.

Velta also decided to change plans for the production of titanium products. If earlier the company wanted to produce only civilian products, now in the United States the new factory will manufacture goods for military purposes too.

"Thanks to the Russians, humanity is starting to mass-produce weapons again, and the share of titanium in modern high-tech weapons is constantly increasing," Velta's president notes.

The company has started designing the first line of production in the United States, is engaged in selecting the location of the enterprise, and preparing employees for business trips overseas.

Brodskiy promised that after the American plant, the company will definitely build a new high-tech enterprise in Ukraine.