The Electrozinc plant at Vladikavkaz in southern Russia will be mothballed by mid-2019 and is moving all its raw material and unfinished product inventories to Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant (CZP) and other Urals Mining Metallurgical (UMMC) production sites.
The move follows December's decison by UMMC and Electrozinc to put the plant under care and maintenance indefinitely, after a fire in late October destroyed the electrolytic workshop, a key link in the production chain. The company previously said rebuilding the workshop could take at least 6-8 months.
UMMC said it will carry out a feasibility study before making a decision on the plant's long-term future.
Since the beginning of December, Electrozinc has shipped 16,200t of zinc concentrate, 10,500t of saleable zinc clinker and 1,500t of unfinished product from the Vladikavkaz site to UMMC's plants in the Urals. It had to temporarily restart the secondary roaster — used to separate zinc tailings into zinc and cadmium-bearing oxides and clinker — and the hydro-metallurgical workshop to bring the material-in-process to the intermediate products stage, at which point it could be transported to another plant.
The remaining stocks will be shipped out before the end of the first quarter, Electrozinc said. During the second quarter, all the plant's facilities will be put under care and maintenance.
Before the fire on 21 October, the plant was operating at 77pc of its 95,000 t/yr zinc production capacity. Cadmium and sulphuric acid production were also running at 77pc of capacity. Output in 2018 was estimated at 73,500t of zinc, 300t of cadmium and 124,000 t/yr of sulphuric acid. Electrozinc has no external contracts, and was supplying all its metals production to UMMC.
Sister company CZP, Russia's largest zinc producer, which is receiving the leftover feedstock, has more than double Electrozinc's capacity for producing zinc and cadmium. But it only has limited scope to offset the loss of Electrozinc production, without expansion. CZP said it has made no decision to expand output at this stage.
CZP produced 191,000t of zinc in 2018 and expects to produce 200,000t this year.
The shutdown of Electrozinc means the group will lose a substantial volume of zinc output, but there has so far been no impact on the zinc spot market premium. Some market participants have voiced concern about potential supply tightness in Russia, given that Electrozinc is one of the country's main producers .
If CZP has to supply more of its by-product cadmium to the domestic market to make up for the loss of Electrozinc production, it could have less available this year to export through tenders.
