UC RUSAL announces the development of new red mud recycling project

UC RUSAL announced that the development of a new red mud recycling prototype facility is included to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science's Russian Science and Technology Complex Priority Research and Development Areas 2007 to 2013 program.

The Ministry will invest RUB 150 million for the research and pilot launch of the project including RUR 50 million in 2012 and RUB 100 million in 2013. The main partners in the research project are the Institute of Metallurgy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National University of Science and Technology. The decision on the financing was made at the meeting of the Technical council of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

Once the R&D stage is completed, the Company will begin the construction of a production unit at the Urals aluminium smelter. Investment at this stage of the project will amount to RUB 600 million. The facility is expected to launch in November 2014, with the capacity to treat up to 200,000 tonnes of red mud annually.

Mr Viktor Mann technical director of UC RUSAL said that “Recycling of red mud is an issue faced throughout the world. We are grateful to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science for taking an active part in the solution of this problem. I am sure RUSAL in partnership with the best Russian scientists and on the base of the existing scientific research, will succeed in creating an environmentally clean alternative to red mud disposal areas, paving the way for the future exploitation of the red mud in the iron industry and construction with the simultaneous extraction of valuable rare earth metals.”