UMMC increases production of refined copper

The Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, the largest copper producer in Russia, will produce about 199 tons of refined copper by the end of the first half of 2015, which is almost 3 percent higher than the output in the same period in 2014. However, zinc production in January-June is expected to be 1-2 percent lower than in the previous year and will amount to 118 tons. Gold and silver production volumes will remain at the same level compared to the same period last year.

According to Andrey Kozitsyn, general director of the holding, it is expected that UMMC will be able to maintain positive dynamics, since the price of copper has increased on average from 5.6 to 6.2 thousand dollars per ton and will remain approximately the same until the end of the year. Now the world market is again suffering from a surplus of copper after four years of deficit. He believes that "This is a normal cyclical situation, and the main goal in this situation is to produce competitive products."

UMMC unites more than 40 metallurgical enterprises located in 11 different regions of Russia. These enterprises extract and process copper and zinc raw materials, produce copper electrolytic powder, rolled non-ferrous metals, copper wire rod, cable products, and dishes. In addition, the company is engaged in the extraction of iron ore, the production of iron ore concentrate and rolled steel, and also produces agricultural products and building materials.

In order to increase the production of refined copper at the UMMC enterprise, OJSC Uralelectromed, as part of the program for the reconstruction of copper electrolysis production, the construction of the second stage of a new workshop, which began in July last year, is underway. Recall that the first stage of the new copper electrolysis shop with investments of over 4.4 billion rubles was commissioned in 2012 and has now exceeded the design capacity of 150 thousand tons of cathode copper per year. Both phases involve a baseless cathode production process, using stainless steel plates as a permanent base, and will provide an output of 300 thousand tons per year.