Kazakhstan plants upgraded

Mipac has been contracted through Xstrata Technology to design and commission the plant-wide control system and electrical systems for a major upgrade to Kazzinc's Ust-Kamenogorsk plants in Kazakhstan.

"The plant-wide control system from Mipac is a key component of the major modernisation project that will establish Kazzinc as a copper producer. The project will significantly improve the environmental performance of our lead smelter and contribute to an increase in the economic value of Kazzinc's product lines through a decrease in our operations costs," said Nick Popovic, president, Kazzinc.

The Ust-Kamenogorsk metallurgical complex, owned and operated by Kazzinc, currently consists of a zinc refinery, a lead smelter and a precious metals refinery. The project will add a new copper smelter and copper refinery to the complex as well as replacing the core lead smelting technology with the Isasmelt process.

Mipac will supply the measurement and control design standards to be used across all of the new plants in the project. The company will design and configure the plant-wide Emerson DeltaV Distributed Control System and is responsible for the design and supply of electrical controls and instrumentation for the new Isasmelt lead and copper plants and the IsaProcess copper refinery, both from Xstrata Technology.

This project will notably contribute to Kazzinc's goal of reducing all dust and gas emissions from its metallurgical operations to insignificant levels.