Magnesite Industrial Complex JSC (part of Magnesite Group) will start producing calcined (caustic) magnesite customized for specific purposes in November 2006. This will make the company Russia’s first producer of the product, which has so far been only produced abroad (in China, Greece, and Spain). Magnesite Group has invested a total of 245 million RUR in R&D, equipment restoration and upgrading and technological design. The annual output of caustic magnesite is expected at 90,000 tons. Caustic magnesite is obtained through baking the substance at 800 to 1000 degrees centigrade. It can be used as the intermediate product for vitrified periclase clinkers needed for making good quality refractory goods. It can also be applied in chemistry, construction, and agriculture. In chemistry, for instance, caustic magnesite is used as one of the components of magnesium-enriched feeding stuffs for home cattle; as for construction industry, the product is added to magnesia cement, aka Sorel cement.

‘Nowadays, these are mainly the large European enterprises involved in chemical, building, and agricultural industries that actually buy calcined magnesite. According to the experts of Magnesite Group, the demand for the product, as far as European countries are concerned, is ever-increasing and currently comes to 500,000 tons a year,’ reports Strategic Planning Director of Magnesite Group Oleg Shatilov.

‘As for Russia, the only thing that enjoys great demand here is the magnesite caustic powder (meant for catching dust) used in pulp-and-paper industry, ore mining, oil and gas and chemical industries, power engineering, machine building, and non-ferrous metallurgy. Yet we are positive that once the new product breaks into the market, it will be in continuous demand among Russian companies as well. Our estimates of home consumption of caustic magnesite amount to 100,000 tons annually for the next one or two years,’ Mr Shatilov said.

In order to reach the target production record and ensure the best quality of the product, the renovated No. 7 rotary kiln will be reinstalled at Magnesite Industrial Complex in November 2006. The independent kiln charge will make it possible to load and bake the product without using the other furnaces. Besides, a new production site for briquetting and further baking of magnesite is being constructed at No. 2 magnesite powder shop. The whole project will cost, approximately, over 600 million RUR.

The Complex has already produced a few experimental batches of caustic magnesite that have successfully undergone all the technical testing in Technological Research Center. This testing proved the outstanding quality and nice technological parameters of the product; in addition, these parameters could be modified to fit the consumers’ needs, the spokesperson for Magnesite Group said to UrBC representative.