In Zakarpattia, industrial salt mining has resumed after a long break.

In Transcarpathia, since November 7, after a year and a half break, stone salt extraction has been resumed at the Tereblyanske deposit. This was reported by Valentyn Kondratyev, co-owner of LLC "Kation Invest," to the industry publication Nadra.info.

"Since Friday, we have been extracting our product – technical salt for industrial processing. We have already signed five contracts with road services for the supply of salt – in the Zakarpattia region, as well as in Lviv and Zhytomyr regions. We keep our promises," – Kondratyev stated.

"Kation Invest" received a special permit for the use of the Tereblyanske stone salt deposit in 2017, and construction of the mine began in 2022.

In August 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the "development of a salt deposit that can supply all of Ukraine with culinary and technical salt."

In 2024, "Kation Invest" planned to produce about 60,000 tons of technical salt, and by 2026 – reach the projected capacity (450,000 tons/year) and start producing edible salt. But in March 2024, the construction of the mine and salt extraction stopped.

As reported by the publication "RBC-Ukraine," despite government support, the "Kation Invest" project stalled due to a conflict between investors. The main shareholders – investment funds "Eho" and "Yukon" – and their ultimate beneficiaries.

The company's ownership structure looks like this: 50% of the shares are controlled by JSC "Eho" (beneficiary – Valentyn Kondratyev), 45% – JSC "Yukon" (Oksana Omelyanенко), and another 5% – Ihor Herey. The director of "Kation Invest" is Kondratyev's son – Serhiy.

At the end of 2023 – beginning of 2024, just when the mine was ready to reach stable production, mutual accusations between shareholders began.

For reference:

Reserves of stone salt in the Tereblyanske deposit reach 15.5 million tons.

After the occupation by Russian troops in 2022 of the Artemivsk stone salt deposit in Donetsk region (considered the largest in Eurasia, developed by DП "Artemsil"), "Kation Invest" is effectively the only salt producer in Ukraine.

The mine being built at the Tereblyanske deposit in Zakarpattia region is called the first new mine of independent Ukraine.