The company "ApatitAgro" has begun cutting down a relict forest on the territory of the Oshurkovo apatite deposit in the Ivolginsky district of Buryatia

The work began despite months of protests from residents of the neighboring villages of Oshurkovo and Sotnikovo. 13.7 hectares have been allocated for logging!

The area is being cleared for geological exploration.
Activists fear that after the start of full-scale development of the deposit, the scale of forest destruction will be even greater.

The Oshurkovo apatite deposit is located 800 meters from the Selenga River, one of the main tributaries of Lake Baikal. Ore reserves are estimated at 2.8 billion tons. "ApatitAgro" plans to invest up to 63 billion rubles in the construction of a mining and processing plant, which will be located about 200 meters from residential buildings

Residents of Oshurkovo and Sotnikovo have been protesting against the development of the deposit since July 2025. Public hearings in Ulan-Ude at the end of July 2025 gathered hundreds of people who opposed open-pit mining on 546 hectares: residents cited risks of water pollution and seismic activity.

People recorded a video message to the president. In February 2026, residents held pickets with posters "Oshurkovo protects Baikal"


The authorities of Buryatia consistently ignored the residents' reaction. The head of the region, Alexey Tsydenov, stated that the protests were coordinated from outside the republic. The project received a positive conclusion from the environmental review — despite criticism from scientists, including those from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

According to
the opinion
of scientists, the development will lead to changes in the chemical composition of groundwater, an increase in the concentration of heavy metals, and the release of significant amounts of phosphorus into the environment. As a result, they believe, Baikal will suffer. The authorities insist that the development will create about 600 jobs and will not harm nature.


The development of this deposit already has an alarming historical precedent: according to local residents, in the 1980s, similar work here ended with the discharge of toxic waste into the Selenga. People associated this with serious illnesses that they began to suffer from en masse. The project was then abandoned — at the site of old developments, there is still almost no vegetation, the land has not recovered.