Karabash
RCC Karabashmed
Karabashmed is the largest copper smelter in whole Russia.
Image photography
By Viktor Macha in 2018.
Plant facts and figures
The plant have an annual capacity of 1400000 tons.
The following processes are conducted in the plant:
- Foundry
This plant produces the following type of products:
- Castings
Full description
Karabashmed is the largest copper smelter in whole Russia.
The first mining settlement was founded here in 1822 and a large copper quarry soon surrounded the town.
Nevertheless, after almost one and half century of heavy mining and copper smelting the whole area around Karabash practically died out and the ecosystem completely collapsed. First acid rains appeared here in the 1970s.
By 1989 the situation was so critical that the smelter must have been shutdown. In 1996 the Russian Ministry of the Environment declared Karabash the zone of ecological disaster.
However the production was resumed in 1998 as the price of copper was rising.
Six years later the smelter became part of RCC group (Russian Copper Company) and the plant was completely modernized, including a state-of-the-art cupola furnace and new converter shop.