A gala meeting was held in the company's Palace of Culture in Berezniki to mark the Day of the Company - the main corporate holiday of OJSC Uralkali.

In keeping with the tradition the meeting paid tribute to the most deserving workers of the company. Six people received the title "Honorary Worker of the Potassium Industry," thirty three people the title "Merited Veteran of Labor." The names of sixteen workers were entered in the company's Book of Honor. Maxim Shirokov, General Director of Uralkali, presented awards to the best workers. "For Uralkali the Day of the Company is not simply a holiday: it has become a landmark event when we sum up and analyze the results of our work," said the General Director. "This is very important for us, for our ability to move forward."

The first guest to congratulate company workers was Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Doctor of Geology Arakdy Krasnoshtein, Director of the Mining Institute of the Urals Branch of the RAS. Uralkali maintains close relations with science. Three institutes - one academy's institute and two research institutes are concerned with the problems of the development of the Verkhnekamsk potash salt deposit.

Congratulating the staff of Uralkali on the holiday Stanislav Yuzhanin, Head of the West-Urals Agency of the State Mining Supervision Authority spoke about the Company's efforts to develop the deposit by safe methods, to use modern ore extracting technologies.

A special feature of the Day of the Company this year was presentation of the recently instituted "Golden Badge of Uralkali." This badge is awarded to those who made a special contribution to the development of Uralkali. Th first recipients of the badge were Alexei Chibisov, Head of the Economics Department, and Sergei Dikov, Head of Oracle-CIS Company. They were awarded the badge for successful completion of the first stage of the project for introduction of the enterprise resources management system based on "Oracle E-Business Suite." This project has a great importance It will help the company substantially cut down production costs. In Uralkali it was implemented within an extremely short period - 1 year. Many other world companies spend much more time to launch "Oracle."

Sergei Dyakov, Technical Director of the company, directors of mine administrations Vladimir Konovalov, Ivan Zhulanov, Vladimir Shanin, Valentin Gorodetsky and director of SP Klimat Yury Paderin told the audience about the production successes of the company. Here are only some of its achievements: in the recent years Uralkali not only stepped up the production of ore and fertilizers but solves positively many ecological problems, which piled up in the previous years. The first mine administration is now planning to develop ore deposits in the Ust-Yaivinsk area of the Verkhnekamsk deposit. Design work will be launched here already next year so that the first one and a half million tons of ore could be mined by the year 2010. BPKRU-2, which works in the most difficult conditions, increased the yield of the useful substance from ore and set a record in doing so. One percent increase in the yield made it possible additionally to produce seven thousand tons of potassium chloride , which would have otherwise went into waste.

It is well known that BPKRU-3 is carrying out an immense program for production of granulated products. At present, BPKRU-3 turns out 75 percent of granulated products. The people working there know perfectly well that granulated potassium is much in demand on the world market and are doing everything possible to keep building up the production and improve the quality of the product.. This is the main object of the retooling program. Installation of new equipment will allow granulated products of Uralkali to advance to the first place in the world.

BPKRU-4 is known for its production capacities. Here more ore is mined than in the other mines. In addition to this BPKRU-4 has large capacities for production of common salt. The high quality of this salt is known in the whole of Russia and last year it received a brand name "Uralochka."

Although SP Klimat is a small production unit compared to the overall size of Uralkali, its products are directly connected with the health of the people. Speleoclimatic chambers, sea salts and other products are well known both in Russia and abroad. Thus, on their Day of the Company, the workers of Uralkali could see once again that their company is worth its world-wide fame.

The gala meeting ended with the performance of Perm Song and Dance Ensemble "Prikamje." The gala reception on the occasion of Uralkali's Day of the Company was followed by fireworks.