December 15 is the third anniversary of the Khakas smelter’s (KhAZ) operations, which have produced over 750,000 t of aluminium since the start-up; 99% of this output are high metal grades. So reports RUSAL, the world’s largest producer of aluminium and alumina. KhAZ’s cash costs are 14% less than the average figures across RUSAL’s aluminium operations, at about $1,200/t, “which is the lowest among all the aluminium smelters globally,” RUSAL reports.

For the eleven months of 2009 the KhAZ pots performed at 320 kA with a current efficiency of 95% whilst consumption rates of raw materials were minimal and the smelter’s daily output was over 800 t. This notable performance came about through the RA-300 technology developed by RUSAL’s in-house R&D staff – Engineering and Technology Centre. The RA-300, a cutting-edge reduction process, is also low in energy consumption: “KhAZ needs 11% less electricity than the average power consumption parameter across the company in general. Moreover, the technology implies a high level of automation bringing the total headcount to only 440 people, and a very lean labour management, which both helped achieve the world-standard productivity level of 618 t per person.”

“The construction and commissioning of the Khakas smelter were a challenge to RUSAL since this plant became the first aluminium production site to have been built in Russia in the last 20 years. Having demonstrated this project as a success, our company proved its capability to implement advanced smelting technologies, design and create new capacities, start them up and manage them in the most efficient way. Over the first three years of operations the Khakas smelter proved the efficiency of its technologies and a strong ability to compete with leading world-class aluminium plants,”noted Alexey Arnautov, the Head of RUSAL’s aluminium division.

The Khakas aluminium smelter was built and commissioned in a record short time of 25 months, producing its first batch of hot metal on December 15, 2006. As early as October 2007 the smelter reached its full design capacity of 300,000 t/y. The entire production process is based on the pre-baked anode technology and is highly automated, which allows, if necessary, any part of the process to be controlled and re-adjusted, and equipment performance to be monitored on a 24-hour basis.

While designing the smelter, close attention was paid to the compliance of the new facility with international labour standards on the shop floor and minimisation of hazardous emissions to mitigate the environmental impact coming from smelting operations. The gas and fume treatment units on the production site capture no less than 99.5% of process emissions and surpass the corresponding international environmental norms. The Khakas smelter has the OHSAS 18001 (health and safety) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) certificates.