The State Property Fund is looking for a buyer for the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant who is not afraid of war.

The State Property Fund of Ukraine plans to put the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, confiscated from Russian oligarch Oleh Derypaska, up for sale by July this year.

This was announced by the new head of the State Property Fund, Dmytro Natalukha, in an interview with Forbes.

Responding to a journalist's question about which large privatisation objects are a priority for privatisation, Dmytro Natalukha named the Odesa Port Plant (OPZ), the Ocean Plaza shopping and entertainment centre in Kyiv, the Demurynskyi Mining and Processing Plant, and the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant (MGZ). According to him, this is the plan for the next six months.

«There will be more strategic players for assets such as the OPZ. It is important to understand that the assets of the OPZ or the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant have a conditional value in themselves. They were conceived as part of the Soviet Union's production chain. Therefore, the sale of OPZ for the restoration of fertiliser production is a question of who can afford to pay a high price for gas or gas transportation. And in which group can this asset be developed and capitalised. The same applies to the alumina plant. It creates value, but it is an intermediate link between the resource and the value-added product,» said Dmytro Natalukha.

He noted that MGZ needs to look for an external investor who can «afford not to pay too much attention to military risks» and «guarantee the security of the asset with their flag and citizenship».

The head of the State Property Fund named the United States and India as potential investors.

«There are two ways. The first is that we don't find anyone, wait for the war to end, for military risks to decrease, and then count on greater competition. We don't know when the war will end, but we need the money now. Plus, there is a nuance that should not be underestimated. While the war continues, we have a certain freedom to act within the legal framework. After the end of hostilities, a return to «normality» may complicate the application of extraordinary decisions regarding assets or individuals. Therefore, waiting is an option, but the question is how much the state will lose during this time. We are trying to calculate this. The second option is to find a strategic investor who will cover the asset with their reputation or global status. Yes, we may sell it cheaper, but in the future, through integration into the global chain, the state may benefit,» said Dmytro Natalukha.

Earlier it was reported that in two years of management, the State Property Fund did not help the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant (MGZ), confiscated from Russian oligarch Oleh Derypaska, to solve a critical environmental problem related to the emergency condition of the slurry field irrigation systems, which became known in the summer of 2022.

As is known, in March 2024, Ukraine completed the process of nationalising the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant (MGZ), which was part of the RUSAL group of companies, and since then it has been under the management of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU). On 20 March 2024, the SFMU expressed on its website an unambiguous position on plans to sell confiscated Russian property, the proceeds of which would be «directed to support and restore Ukraine». However, since then, there has been no movement on the sale of the plant.

With the start of full-scale war in February 2022, the company ceased production of alumina, and its corporate rights have been under arrest since June 2022.

Of the five thousand workers, only about 400 remain today, who are involved in maintaining the sludge storage facilities covering an area of about 400 hectares and preserving the company's property, said Oleksii Medvid, head of the MGZ, in a comment to NikVesti.

For more details on the situation at the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant, read the article «Trapped in stagnation: what are the chances for the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant after nationalisation».

Is the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant a slow-acting ecological «bomb»?

The plant, which has been out of operation for five years, has become many times more dangerous to the environment than when it was operating at full capacity. This position was expressed by the head of the State Environmental Inspection, Ihor Zubovych, in response to an information request from NikVesti regarding the situation at the MGZ since the start of the full-scale war.

According to information received by NikVesti received from the State Environmental Inspection, on 19 July 2022, the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant reported that due to shelling in the area of sludge storage facility No. 2, it was difficult to process the surface of the red sludge deposited in the sludge storage facility basins, which created the risk of red sludge dusting.

As a result, the enterprise is treating only one-third of the area of sludge storage facility №2: «combat operations in the area of sludge storage facility №2 and damage to the dust suppression system lines, making their restoration difficult; inability to maintain the dust suppression system due to the blocking of the enterprise's accounts. At the same time, sludge storage facility №1 is being fully maintained by the company's own efforts to wet the area».

Twice in August 2022, once in September 2022 and once in January 2023, MGZ reported that due to increased wind speeds, uncontrolled dusting was observed from one of the sludge storage facilities, which could cause contamination of land plots outside their sanitary protection zone. The company then activated the dust suppression system at sludge storage facility №2.

However, due to a lack of personnel, the company was unable to carry out dust suppression work on the beaches of sludge storage facility №1.

Uncontrolled dusting of sludge from the company's sludge fields continued throughout 2023: in May, July, August (twice) and September (four times).

Until July 2022, maintenance work on the dust suppression systems of sludge storage facility №2, including restoration of the system after shelling, was carried out by a contractor, which stopped providing services because MGZ had not paid them for their work for almost six months.

In the spring of 2023, the operation of the company's sludge storage facilities became critical:

1. the filling of the working bowl of sludge storage facility №1 with sub-sludge water exceeded the permissible level, threatening to pollute the waters of the Bug Estuary, located 300 metres from the sludge field.
2. The level of sub-sludge accumulation in sludge storage facility №2, which has a higher alkalinity than sludge storage facility №1, has reached a critical level. Overflowing this storage facility will lead to contamination of the adjacent agricultural land.
3. There is still a problem of significant dusting of sludge in field №2, which can cause air pollution. This is due to the fact that a «dry» accumulation method is used there, which requires constant monitoring and moistening of the surface.
4. The sprinkler dust suppression system (necessary for moistening the sludge) that was in operation at the enterprise was damaged and failed during the hostilities.

In July 2025, the State Environmental Inspectorate of the South-Western District informed the Minister of Economy and Environment that the situation with waste from the Mykolaiv Alumina Plant was deteriorating. Environmentalists warned of the threat of a breach of the sludge storage facilities and pollution of the Bug Estuary.