OREANDA-NEWS  On 20 November UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, announced that it has put in operation storage facilities, the first support units of the Taishet Aluminium Smelter, which is currently under construction.  The company has invested over USD 15 million in construction of the facilities to store core equipment.

The constructed facilities are designed to provide storage space for core equipment for the reduction area and cast house. The shipments of the equipment and materials will begin this year, while most of the equipment will be delivered to the construction site in 2009-2010.  

The construction of the Taishet Aluminium Smelter proceeds in accordance with the business plan. A concrete-mixing plant has been already constructed and put in operations, and 40 km of engineering networks have been installed, as well as 80% of ground works have been completed as part of the aluminium smelter construction project. The assembling of metal structures for the reduction cell area, cast house, as well as auxiliary facilities is in progress. In 2008 a fire-engine house and a kitchen will be put in operations in the administrative and production complex. 

About Taishet Aluminium Smelter

UC RUSAL is constructing the Taishet Aluminium Smelter in the Irkutsk region. The design capacity is 750,000 tonnes of aluminium per annum.  The planned investment in the construction project is about USD 2 billion. The Taishet Aluminium Smelter will encompass four reduction potrooms equipped with state-of-the-art RA-400 cells.  The smelter will also include a cast house, an anode plant, a power house, gas scrubbers, and a full range of infrastructure facilities. The construction project is implemented by UC RUSAL’s Engineering & Construction Division.