OREANDA-NEWS. December 3, 2007. Gross emissions at the JSC Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant (part of Metallurgical holding of ESTAR Group) have decreased three times. Beavers appeared at the Ay river that flows through the ZMP site and that, according to the environmentalists, speaks for the fact of a considerable decrease of industrial emissions.

Since 1993 the enterprise took out of service 5 open-hearth furnaces and 7 electric furnaces that were the main source of pollution. In 2007 the number of samples that showed excess of pollution standards accounted for no more than 2% of those drawn.

Reconstruction and installation of gas- and dust-cleaning devices in 2006-2007 will allow to reduce environmental emissions by more than 330 t. Construction of water drainage system linked with the vacuum oxygen refining unit was finished. The system will allow directing the waste industrial water into the recirculation cycle. 40,624,000 rubles were assigned for environmental issues in 2005 and 47,392,000 – in 2006.

Installation of new Electric Steel Making Shop No.4 (ESMS-4) began in the framework of construction of the New Zlatoust Electrometallurgical Plant (NZEMP) and the unit will be equipped according to the European environmental standards. Gas-cleaning units will be produced in Germany and Sweden. Construction of ESMS-4 is the first stage of JSC ZMP reconstruction that is planned to be finished by 2009. The investment value of the entire plant reconstruction project will amount to ?130 mln.