The new line casts 22.5 kg ingots, a totally new product for the smelter. When running at full capacity the line can produce 27 tonnes per hour. Its output in September is expected to be 6,000 tonnes.

Developed by RUSAL’s teams, the casthouse expansion project started at IrkAZ in 2006. Casthouse 3 will have two lines. In January 2009 the smelter began the start-up and commissioning of the first line, which has two independent tilting furnaces, 60 tonnes capacity each, with heat treatment and stirrers, and one casting conveyor.

The benefits of the new equipment in Casthouse 3 include a higher level of productivity compared to the existing casting machines and fully automated casting and stacking.

‘Commissioning of the new modern equipment that has the shortest changeover time before it can shift to a more popular product, will improve the rate at which we are able to respond to the changing needs of our customers and is an important step towards better product quality and higher efficiency of the company’s aluminium smelters, a critically important factor given the current economic difficulties,’ said Alexey Arnautov, RUSAL’s Director of the Aluminium Division.

About Irkutsk aluminium smelter

The Irkutsk aluminium smelter was commissioned in 1962 and is located 1.7 km from Shelekhov, 22 km to the south-east of Irkutsk. The smelter is certified with the international standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004. IrkAZ casting plant includes Casthouse 1, Casthouse 2 and recently commissioned Stage 1 of Casthouse 3. In 2008, the aluminium output totalled over 350,000 tonnes of products, 270,000 tonnes which was value-added.

About RUSAL

RUSAL (www.rusal.com) is the global leader in the aluminium industry and accounts for approximately 12% and 15% of the global production of aluminium and alumina respectively. RUSAL sells its products in 70 countries worldwide and employs 90,000 people in 19 countries across five continents.

To learn more about aluminium please visit http://www.aluminiumleader.com