OJSC Uralkali celebrated its main corporate holiday, the Day of the Company. The holiday events were simultaneously held in two cities - Berezniki, where the enterprise is located, and in St. Petersburg.

Uralkali's guests in St. Petersburg included its Russian and foreign partners, buyers and investors from Brazil, Poland, the United States, Vietnam, India, China, Malaysia, Finland, Switzerland, and other countries.

A gala reception in honor of Uralkali's Day of the Company was held in the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, the oldest technical institute in Russia. Here the guests visited the unique museum of the Mining Institute and then attended a gala meeting. Speakers at the meeting included director of the Mining Institute Vladimir Litvinenko, chairman of Uralkali's board of directors Dmitry Rybolovlev, company's general director Maxim Shirokov. The main guest at the meeting was RF President's envoy in the Northwestern Federal District Valentina Matvienko. In her congratulatory speech she said: "For ten years Uralkali joint-stock company has been moving ahead along a difficult but very important path to become a prestigious and respected enterprise known not only in Russia but the world over. I am glad that in 2002 Uralkali began actively to cooperate with St. Petersburg. It was at that time that a decision was taken to build, jointly with St. Petersburg's sea port, the Baltic Bulker Terminal for transshipment of potassium chloride. Uralkali Company is a modern market enterprise which is operating successfully and effectively, investing large funds in its development. This demonstrates that the company thinks about its future, its development and it has goods prospects. I wish you even greater successes on each new Day of the Company."

Chairman of Uralkali's board of directors Dmitry Rybolovlev explained that the choice of the venue of the gala meeting was not accidental: "There are many things that link Uralkali with the Mining Institute. At the beginning of last century the Verkhnekamsk deposit of potash salts, on which Uralkali is working now, was discovered by graduate of the Mining Institute Pavel Preobrazhensky. Many graduates of this industrial institute, the best in the country, work in our company. Therefore there is continuity in today's meeting which is taking place within the precincts of this institute."

At the end of the meeting the guests were shown a video film and presented with a booklet "Evolution of the Quality." The booklet tells in detail about the production stages of Uralkali, the resources of the company and its up-to-date R&D projects which allow the company to ensure an excellent quality of its products.

The gala events continued next day. The guests of the company visited the Baltic Bulker Terminal. From 2002, the Baltic Bulker Terminal located at St. Petersburg's sea port is the main port for transshipment of Uralkali's products. Last year, more than 40% of all products of the company were shipped through this port.

The Russian and foreign guests watched the entire technological chain of transshipment of mineral fertilizers. They examined warehouses for the storage of potassium chloride and other mineral fertilizers, visited the railway car unloading station, the wharf where ships are loaded. The gusts were particularly interested in the central control board which controls the entire technological chain of the bulker terminal.

General director of the Baltic Bulker Terminal Evgeny Koryushkin told the guests about the development prospects of the terminal. Its short-term plans include commissioning of the second car unloading station and construction in 2004 of a new wharf which will make it possible substantially to increase cargo-handling volumes.

The guests estimated very highly the potentialities of the Baltic Bulker Terminal. Mr. Olavio Takenaka, Director for Purchases of Bunge Fertilizantes, Brazil's largest company engaged in the production and sale of mineral fertilizers, said he was greatly impressed by what he saw: "This is a completely new terminal with state-of-the-art equipment. Bunge Fertilizantes carries out purchases through this terminal. For us it is most important that the quality characteristics of the product should not be affected. Having seen this terminal we are now sure that the equipment installed here and the terminal as a whole allow the quality attained in the course of production at your company to be fully preserved."

On July 19, the guests arrived in Berezniki, where they were taken on a tour of the mines of the company and shown its mining facilities. They saw how combine complexes operate and how ore was mined and transported to the surface. Speaking of his impressions Mr. Melih Keyman, President of Keytrade of Switzerland, who acts as an intermediary through whom the fertilizers produced in Berezniki are sold to the United States, Poland, Turkey, Asian countries, said: "This is fantastic! I have seen a lot but what I saw here is beyond any comparison. It is surprising that such a high productivity can be achieved at a relatively low depth: the ore is mined very quickly. I am also surprised by the fact that the company invests such large sums in the production although prices on potassium markets are not very high."

In memory of the visit to Berezniki potassium mines the guests of Uralkali carried away with them lumps of sylvinite ore.