Sirius, a private Ukrainian company, will invest 2.2 billion in a project to construct a mining and metallurgical plant. The plant will be used to develop the Kropyvenske titanium-apatite deposit in Zhytomyr. The regional authorities intend to sign a memorandum on cooperation with Sirius on 14 September 2011. Sirius is owned and headed by Mykola Scherbyna, who was appointed as an adviser to President Viktor Yuschenko in 2005. The company acquired the license to the Kropyvenske deposit in 2006 at an auction held by the Environmental Ministry. The deposit contains titanium ore, in addition to associated apatite ore and rare-earth metals.
