EBRD grants $12 mln loan to Russia zinc plant
Date: 11-Oct-02
Country: RUSSIA
The six-year loan will finance the construction of a mercury recovery plant and a sulphuric acid plant. The new facilities will help the smelter eliminate mercury emissions and drastically reduce emissions of sulphur oxides.
Under the EBRD environmental action plan accepted by Chelyabinsk, all the plant's processing units will comply with European Union as well as Russian environmental standards by 2005.
The EBRD granted the Chelyabinsk plant a $15 million loan for six years in 2000 to finance the expansion of the smelter's capacity and refine zinc at a higher grade.
The plant, located in the Urals, has an annual capacity of about 150,000 tonnes of zinc. Chelyabinsk said earlier this year it hoped to raise output to 160,000-162,000 tonnes in 2002 from 155,500 tonnes in 2001.
The plant was privatised in 1993 and its majority owner is Swiss-based Euromin, part of the Vitol group of companies.
Chelyabinsk is implementing a major modernisation project, which will up its capacity to 200,000 tonnes of zinc per year.
