VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Design and construction of the refinery with an initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes of alumina began in 1949. In 1955, it was decided to increase production to 150,000 tonnes. Pikalyovo's first alumina was produced on September 25, 1959.
1965: alumina and cement operations, separate but sharing a common technology, integrated in one unit, forming the Pikalyovo Alumina Works.
1976: combined with the Tikhvin Alumina Refinery, Boksitogorsk, forming the Glinozyom Pikalyovo Production Association.
1991: Boksitogorsk alumina plant separated from the association.
1992: privatised, forming the Glinozyom Pikalyovo Association.
2001: Glinozyom Pikalyovo Association reorganised and merged with Volkhov Aluminii to form the Pikalyovo Glinozyom affiliate of Metallurg Company.
January 1, 2004: Subsidiaries Pikalyovo Cement and Metachem formed on the basis of cement and soda-and-potash operations of the affiliate.
2004: reorganised, with the Pikalyovo Alumina Refinery joining Sibir-Ural Aluminium Company.
2007: Assets of SuAl, RusAl and Glencore combined, forming the Rossiiskii Aluminii Company.
2008: BasElCement Pikalyovo formed.
Throughout its history, the plant has been expanding and modernising, its alumina capacities reaching 267,700 tonnes in 1992. Its average staff in 2005 numbered 3,364 people, while at the end of the first quarter of 2009, it was down to 2,692.
The Pikalyovo Alumina Refinery produces alumina from nepheline concentrate supplied by Apatit Company, Murmansk Region, by sintering it with limestone. Nepheline concentrate is a product obtained from the tailings left over from the dressing of apatite ores.
The technical feasibility and economic viability of using such low-grade raw material (in terms of a generally accepted classification of aluminium-containing materials) is due to the combined extraction and full utilisation of all components, producing alumina, soda, potash, cement and gallium. As many as 1.1 tonnes of soda products and 10 tonnes of cement are co-produced with one tonne of alumina.
Commercial products of alumina manufacture are: alumina (grades G-000 and G-00), aluminium hydroxide with a natural moisture content of 15% to 18% or dried up to a moisture level of 5% to 8%, finely dispersed aluminium hydroxide, and metallic gallium. By-products obtained in alumina production - nepheline slurry and carbonate solution - are realised by Pikalyovo Cement and Metachem.
The refinery has a limestone quarry with a planned capacity of over 2,000,000 tonnes a year, explored reserves in the B, C1, and C2 categories totalling 300,000,000 tonnes (both operating and planned units), and its own heat and power plant with an installed steam capacity of 485 Gcal/hr and 75 MW (electrical). The refinery supplies heat to the town and outside consumers. The soda producer, Metachem, consumes 42% of the heat energy generated by the plant.
