The largest company in the region continues to take measures to reduce the burden on the environment. Significant results have been achieved in 26 years. Ust-Kamenogorsk Metallurgical Complex (UK MK) has significantly reduced the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions – from 69 thousand tons in 2001 to 16 thousand tons in 2022. Media representatives were told about how it is supposed to further reduce the level of exposure.
Kazzinc experts shared the results of environmental activities in 2022 and plans for 2023.
According to metallurgists, 35 different environmental initiatives have been introduced in Ust-Kamenogorsk over the past 12 months. They spent 2.2 billion tenge on them.
“Effective environmental performance of the company is confirmed by the data of Kazhydromet,” says Kaztai Takeev, chief ecologist of Kazzinc. “The average SO2 content in Ust-Kamenogorsk at the end of the year was 0.7 MPC. And the lead content in the air does not consistently exceed the norm and is at the level of 0 .5 MPC. That is, in both cases – less than the permissible threshold level. ”
This was achieved through a number of activities at the UK MK. It also provided for scheduled repairs of equipment, optimization of technological processes, as well as the reconstruction of filtration systems. This also includes landscaping projects.
When dealing with waste, Kazzinc adheres to the rational use of resources. For example, with poor slag – waste rock left after the technological processing of ore, Kazzinc workers fill the exhausted mine voids. Arsenic and iron-containing wastes are not accumulated on the territory of the enterprise, but are buried in a special industrial waste storage facility (the territory of the former Semipalatinsk test site). The share of water discharge from metallurgical production is traditionally minimal: in the total volume from other enterprises it is less than 1%.
Speaking about the future, Kazzinc intends to spend 722 million tenge on environmental protection measures in 2023. Of these, 315 million are planned for the protection of atmospheric air. The next two years will be devoted to improving the processing of sulfur-containing gases. This will require the reconstruction of the sulfuric acid plant. Relevant projects have already been developed.
“The first project involves the reconstruction of a department that provides transportation of sulfur-containing gases to a sulfuric acid plant. There they are processed into commercial sulfuric acid,” Kaztai Takeev shares his plans. “The second project is the reconstruction of one of the elements of the sulfur-containing gases purification system. to reduce emissions, however, they play an equally important role – they are a large part of the company’s strategy to reduce the impact on the atmosphere. By the end of 2025, it is planned to equip existing plants with post-treatment, which will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, preliminary, by another thousand tons.”
Also during the meeting, media representatives were given a tour of the production site of the UK MK, where they showed the system for capturing process gases.