Rusal's Taishet aluminium smelter storage facilities in operation

London (Platts)--17 Nov, 2008Russian aluminium major UC Rusal has put storage facilities, the first support units of the Taishet Aluminium Smelter which is currently under construction, into operation, the group said in a statement Monday. The company has invested over $15 million in construction of the facilities to store core equipment, it said. Rusal said the constructed facilities were designed to provide storage space for core equipment for the reduction area and cast house. The shipment of the equipment and materials will begin this year, while most of the equipment will be delivered to the construction site in 2009-2010, Rusal said, adding that the construction of the Taishet aluminium smelter was proceeding in accordance with the business plan. "A concrete-mixing plant has already been constructed and put in operation, 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," Rusal said. The Taishet Aluminium smelter is being constructed in the Irkutsk region and has a design capacity of 750,000 mt/year of aluminium. The planned investment in the construction project is about $2 billion. Rusal said the Taishet aluminium smelter would 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.