Apple refused gold and tungsten from Russia

The American company Apple has officially stopped using tungsten, tantalum and gold from Russia "at the request of the US government", writes Kommersant. However, the reports say that it continues to receive tungsten from the Moliren plant in the Moscow region. At the same time, the South Korean company Samsung continues to use Russian metals, despite the fact that its products are not supplied to Russia.

Samsung receives tantalum, tungsten and gold from various plants, including Hydrometallurg, Moliren, Unechsky Refractory Metals Plant, Solikamsk Magnesium Plant, Novosibirsk Refining Plant, Uralelectromed, Moscow Plant for Processing Special Alloys and Krastsvetmet.

A source associated with the Solikamsk magnesium plant said that the plant has no direct contacts with Samsung and Apple. The main partner of the tantalum plant is the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan. Ruslan Dimukhamedov, General director of the plant, explained that tantalum oxide is sent to a neighboring country, where it is processed into metal and re-exported to Russia.

Some experts note that if American companies refuse to purchase metal in Russia, then it is simply purchased in other countries, which in turn can buy it from Russia. According to Sergey Grishunin, managing director of the NRA rating service, the volumes previously supplied to the United States can be compensated by Chinese and Indian manufacturers.

Last spring, Apple suspended sales of its equipment in Russia, and Samsung announced the suspension of smartphone shipments to Russia. According to Bloomberg, this affected a wide range of products, including chips, smartphones and consumer electronics.