Gennady Voskresensky

    So many disparaging names have been given to the small Ural city of Karabash! ‘Gas chamber’, ‘Black hole’, ‘Dead zone’ are just a few of them. Even the UN ecology commission called it «the most polluted place on the planet». Alas, all these names are no exaggeration.
According to independent studies, the air pollution over Karabash can be classified as «the ecological disaster». Ecologists give the same rating to the state of the local water basin. The Sak-Elga river, which was full of fish in the past, is nowadays more like a collector of polluted industrial and domestic sewage. The city’s landscape is being dominated by black depressing mountains of slag. The soil cover is non-existent, the neighboring forests are reduced to zero.
All these are aftereffects of activities by the Karabash copper Smeltery alone, which has been in operation for many years. The plant was built 90 years ago and was repeatedly modernized. But the need to protect environment was given thought only in the 1970s. Five attempts were made to shut down the plant’s production facilities and three times it came close to changing the specialization. But each time, however, the interests of the industry, which was facing the growing demand along with deficit of resources, gained the upper hand.
The Karabash plant is not considered large. In 2001 it produced 41,700 tons of blister copper. By production volumes Karabash is well behind three Ural copper Smelteries incorporated in the Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company (UMMC): the Sredneuralsky copper Smeltery (over 105,600 tons in 2001), Svyatogor JSC (55,300 tons) and Kirovgradsky Plant (46,600 tons). The problem with Karabash is not in the production scale but in the backwardness of technologies being used there. Unlike other copper smelteries in the Urals, it has no system of treating sulfur dioxide to get sulfuric acid. Sulfuric anhydride, copper, zinc and lead oxides as well as arsenic, which are produced in the course of processing copper ore, are simply discharged in the air.
With no ecological protection available, production costs are minimal. Karabash’s copper is the cheapest by its prime cost. Probably, because of this the plant’s shareholders and, above all, its principal customer, the Kyshtymsky copper electrolyte Plant (KMEZ) JSC, were in no hurry to invest in environment protection measures. But the situation has started to change lately.

The gas cleaning complex built in 2001 at the smelting facilities of Uralelektromed JSC provides a complete treatment of harmful substances

In May 2001 the Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company managed to consolidate its block of shares and laid claims to Karabash’s assets. There was a property dispute and the matter went to court. This drew much public attention and was a subject of many press commentaries, which were rather emotionally charged.
Yes, emotions are inevitable. The reason is the very fact that a court decision may transform the configuration of the region’s copper market. The Kyshtymsky Plant, Russia’s third largest producer of refined copper (82, 000 tons in 2001), needs a victory because only a total control over Karabash could provide it with a guaranteed raw material base as well as with an opportunity to maintain the complete technological cycle. UMMC (327,000 tons of refined copper) already has 4 copper smelteries and a shop to produce blister copper from scrap. So, it does not really matter to the company, if it gets one more enterprise of the similar specialization. UMMC wants to have it because of its strategic considerations. By getting hold of Karabash, it hopes to complete the integration of the Urals’ copper industry. After that it would become possible to introduce single standards, including the ecological ones, to all enterprises as well as to unify pricing with respect to raw materials and semifinished products. In other words, UMMC would like to eliminate the unfair competition and normalize the market.
The competition between the two sides is not limited to the courthouse walls. Taking into account the repercussions of the ‘Karabash affair’ the rivals are trying to make a favorable impact on the public and secure support by authorities and mass media. To this end KMEZ and UMMC not only declared the intent to start modernizing the plant but put forward specific programs as well. Just recently ‘the planet’s most polluted city’ had no prospects whatsoever. But today there are two ways open at once to its recovery.
Thus, here is a situation unprecedented as yet in the Russian metals industry: the contest of ecological projects. What’s more, the concept offered by KMEZ is already being implemented. An oxygen plant has been built at the Karabash copper Smeltery. The next step is to construct a sulfuric acid shop, which is supposed to be put in operation at the beginning of 2003. Therefore, a sharp reduction in discharges of sulfuric dioxide, dust, compounds of lead and arsenic might be expected already next year.
However, not all experts feel optimistic about solving Karabash’s ecological problems any time soon. They draw attention to a number of this program’s serious drawbacks. In particular, the first thing to do for treating waste gases should be to construct sulfuric acid facilities, not an oxygen plant. The use of oxygen-enriched blow increased productivity of morally outdated installations: as a result, the concentration of sulfuric dioxide in the plant’s discharges rose even more and this only worsened the quality of the environment. Another problem is connected to the necessity of selling sulfuric acid. At present, possibilities of marketing it are limited. Suffice it to say that enterprises of the non-ferrous metals industry in neighboring Kazakhstan have to neutralize sulfuric acid by limestone, with no further neutralizing products being applied. There is a rigid balance established in the market and additional shipments might turn unneeded.
However, the root of the problem is not investors’ tactical blunders. Basing on the world’s experience of modernizing copper smelteries and taking into account the whole complex of modern ecological standards, reconstruction at the Karabash plant will require investments of $200 million. With the maximum possible production volume of 50,000 tons of copper and existing price level this enterprise’s profit will not exceed $8 million a year. In other words, credits will never be called in.
Such an estimate put ecologists on guard and made them consider more thoroughly an alternative being offered by the Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company.
In contrast to KMEZ the company is not going to participate in modernizing the plant until a final court verdict is brought in. And the reason is clear: a normal investment activity becomes possible only when all property disputes are absolutely settled. Meanwhile, UMMC has already showed up the seriousness of intentions by implementing a complex of ecological protection measures at its enterprises. Deputies of the Russian Parliament gave positive assessments of the job. For example, the chairman of the ecology committee of the State Duma and corresponding member of the Russian academy of sciences Vladimir Grachev complimented these measures calling them «a program for ecological recovery of the Urals’ whole region». In his words, projects like this «contribute to the country’s prestige».
Here are some specific examples. The Sredneuralsky copper Smeltery (SUMZ), which produces blister copper, is the largest enterprise using this technological process and, simultaneously, in the view of ecologists, it is responsible for most problems. The mill is located in a densely populated area being literally squeezed between two cities. That is why it is a target of constant complaints by city dwellers and of attacks by media. When the plant was incorporated in UMMC, the situation began to change. In 2000 the company allocated over $5 million to modernize gas cleaning installations. An effective system for trapping sulfuric anhydride was put in operation at the plant. There is a principally new complex for removing converter gases in the copper-smelting shop, the main source of air pollution.
In 2001 and 2002 work on reequipping of the production facilities continued. The reconstruction of the concentrating plant was completed solving the problem of reprocessing copper slag: there were over 20 million tons of slag accumulated in 50 years of the plant’s operation. Now the slag volume will be going down by 1 million tons a year. The immediate plans provide for the start-up of a new oxygen plant costing $6 million, which will permit to clean waste gases from any solid inclusions, even from microparticles of dust. The system of ecological monitoring was successfully tested at SUMZ. Now it is being introduced at UMMC’ other enterprises. The system is based on the experience of environment protection, which the company’s specialists studied in Canada.
Large-scale ecological measures have been taken at Uralelektromed JSC, the key structural division of UMMC. Modern gas cleaning systems for anode furnaces are operating at the copper-smelting shop there. An advanced method of sludge leaching is applied at the chemical smelting shop and smelting furnaces are switched over to a fuel that allows to sharply reduce discharges into the air. There is an advanced system for aspirating waste gases, which are most harmful to human health and all living nature. As for industrial drainage, there is no longer such a problem: for five years already not a single drop of waste has been discharged by the enterprise into the water. It is very indicative of the ecological protection level at this enterprise that UMMC’ general director lives in a house located 500 meters from the production site.

The Urals’ copper industry processes rebellious ores with inclusions of zinc, iron and other minerals. So, one of the industry’s most difficult problems has been a complex use of raw materials. Every year copper-smelting plants get, along with copper concentrates, 55,000 tons of zinc and from 10,000 to 12,000 tons of lead, which are wasted together with slag. UMMC’ management successfully solved this problem as well. At present, the Kirovgradsky copper Smeltery is under reconstruction aimed at a total change of its specialization. A complex of polymetals is being constructed there to reprocess the basic production waste gradually cleaning the surrounding areas. The capacity of the first production stage will amount to 10,000 tons of zinc and 8,000 tons of lead.
So, with all these considerations UMMC finally arrived at Karabash. The technical and financial auditing by its experts uncovered serious shortcomings in production arrangements at this plant. Everything that the company is suggesting to undertake there might be compiled into a rational and very simple scheme. Since reprocessing of sulfide ores at the Karabash Copper Smeltery is unprofitable and ecologically dangerous, these raw materials may be redirected to other plants. And UMMC suggests that Karabash will get copper scrap. In this case all ecological measures will come to installing bag filters for cleaning shaft furnaces and converters.
Under this option the volume of investments in reconstructing the plant is estimated to total $3.5 million. It will become possible to reprocess slag accumulated earlier. The project might be implemented in 6 or 7 months after the plant is integrated in UMMC. This time period will suffice for securing a reliable ecological protection and the plant’s loss-free operation. And in future, with no harm to people and environment, this enterprise could raise metal production, bring considerable profit (by estimates, up to $5 million annually) and pay taxes. In order to protect the environment, among other things.