OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2011. Metinvest, an international vertically integrated mining and steel group of companies, invests almost UAH 5 billion this year in modernization of iron ore enrichment works (GOKs) in scopes of the program of continuous improvement, reconstruction and modernization of the production facilities.

The investments for modernization are distributed as follows:

the Northern GOK – UAH 2.58 billion

the Inguletsk GOK – UAH 1.35 billion

the Central GOK – UAH 0.90 billion

The investment program of the Northern GOK includes a reconstruction of indurating machines, a modernization and an integrated automation of the beneficiation plant, construction of conveyor ore transportation at Pervomaisky open pit, and purchase of major mining equipment.

The main focus of the Inguletsk GOK’s investment program is the launch of the second line of the complex of magnetic floatation concentration enabling an increase of flotation concentrate volumes up to 7 Mtonnes (Q4 2011 – planned project completion). Modernization plans also include an integrated automation of the enrichment processing as well as environmental projects implementation.

The Central GOK plans to invest into ecological activities related to slime facilities development, and the construction of a new crushing and handling complex.

“Target parameters of quality of the raw materials produced by our GOKs fully comply with international standards and are oriented on steel processing of Metinvest Group in the first place.  This year’s investments will be channeled for debottlenecking and solving of quality issues, strengthening of enrichment process and reduction of environmental impact”, noted Nikolay Ishchenko, director of Iron Ore Division of Metinvest. “We are confident that a balanced approach to the technological development along with the responsible attitude to our recourses will help us achieve the best results in the shortest time.”

Since 2006 Metinvest has invested over UAH 7.5 billion in the modernization of GOKs in scopes of the long-term investment program that provides continuous efficiency improvement and production development. Securing the highest quality parameters of GOKs’ production output is a strategic task of the raw materials processing of Metinvest Group.