1 / 5
Date:
March 17, 2011
First silicon metal plant in Kazakhstan
 
Silicium Kazakhstan LLP, Kazakhstan's first silicon metal plant, started production at the end of 2010. The new factory is located on a more than 100 hectare site in the province of Karaganda, the country's metallurgical center. Karaganda offers the necessary infrastructure, including a power plant to supply the factory, and is therefore the ideal location.
 
With ThyssenKrupp Mannex as the lead supplier of technical equipment and responsible for supervising construction, and ThyssenKrupp Metallurgie as the exclusive global distributor of the metal produced, two ThyssenKrupp companies have key roles in the prestigious silicon plant. ThyssenKrupp Metallurgie also holds a 16 percent stake in the company.

From left.: K. Diedrigkeit (Project Manager ThyssenKrupp Metallurgie), M. Sutyaginskiy (President of Titan, Omsk) G. van Vleuten (Head of Finance Department), R. Schlageter (German Ambassador to Kazakhstan), A. Beier (Managing Director ThyssenKrupp Metallurgie), H.-J. Pietzsch (Managing Director ThyssenKrupp Mannex), A. Sutyaginskiy (President of Silicium Kazakhstan), W. Baldus (Project Manager ThyssenKrupp Mannex), K. Baikanowa (Head of Rep. Office Almaty), K. Beyer (former Head of Rep. Office Almaty)
 
The first tap during the startup of furnace I attracted great interest: Alongside Albert Rau, First Deputy Minister of Industry and New Technologies, and the German Ambassador Rainer Schlageter, numerous bank and media representatives attended the successful premiere.
 
Initially the plant will produce silicon metal with one furnace (annual capacity 12,500 metric tons) – for customers in Europe, Asia and the USA among others. A second furnace with the same capacity, already installed, is scheduled for startup in May 2011.
Silicon metal is a key component in the production of aluminum casting alloys and is also used in the chemical industry, among other things in the manufacture of silicon and semiconductors (processors and solar cells). Due to its extremely high purity, silicon from Kazakhstan is particularly amenable to processing.