Boguchansk Aluminium Smelter to produce first batch in 2013

Boguchansk Aluminium Smelter is a part of Boguchanskoye Energy and Metals Complex.

In May 2006, Rusal and HydroOGK (currently RusHydro) signed a cooperation agreement to jointly build the Boguchanskoye Energy and Metals Complex (BEMO). With a budget of USD 3.6 billion, the project will see the complete construction of the 3,000MW Boguchanskaya Hydropower Plant on the Angara River and the building of a greenfield 600,000 tonnes-per-annum aluminium smelter. Stage 1 of the hydropower plant and the smelter will be commissioned in 2010. The project budget does not include the costs of the necessary infrastructure and the inundation zone arrangements. The project is co-financed by Rusal and RusHydro with their own and borrowed funds. In 2007, investors allocated RUR 11.35 billion to the BEMO project.

In July 2007, public hearings on the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment of the Boguchanskaya Hydropower Plant construction project, which was conducted in line with international banking requirements, were held in the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk region. In December 2007, a public hearing relating to the construction of the Boguchansky Aluminium Smelter took place in the Boguchansky district. Public hearings on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) took place in the summer of 2008.

In 2008, the BEMO project investors increased financing up to RUR 22.54 billion. As part of the hydropower plant construction project, nearly USD 180 mln have been spent on non-standard equipment (turbines, cranes, etc). In the first half of 2009, the project team placed orders for electrical equipment.

At the current stage of the project, the construction team is building a spillway, installing the cranes which will help to place hydraulic actuators and locks for the spillway before filling the water reservoir, which will be the final stage of the construction of the new power plant.

The levelling works on the smelter’s construction site are almost finished: apprx. 7.8 mln m³ of earth were removed and another 4.9 mln m³ were placed where necessary as part of the early project works. The construction teams have completed excavating the foundation pits for reduction area, anode-rodding shop and casthouse which are yet to be built. In parallel, the workers are still building their onsite camp, high-voltage substation and temporary access roads. The total value of all the contracts for acquisition of smelter’s process equipment is apprx. USD 400 mln.

The smelter will be equipped with RA-300 cells, a leading development of Rusal's Engineering and Technology Centre. This aluminium production technology excludes any hazardous emissions from the plant. The project's feasibility study was developed by the Russian National Aluminium-Magnesium Institute in St. Petersburg together with Bechtel, an international engineering company.

The project is a good example of cooperation and partnership between the Government and the private sector. Its implementation will be a key element of the complex development programme for the Lower Angara territories, which also includes plans to build a pulp and paper mill, gas condensate and iron ore processing plants, and a rail and road network.

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