Together with Russia’s power generating group RusHydro, RUSAL is constructing a massive energy and metals complex on the Angara River in the Krasnoyarsk region. The complex will include a smelter with the capacity to produce 600,000 tonnes a year and a 3000 MW hydropower plant. The HPP’s first three turbines are expected to come on-stream in April 2012. The first start-up complex of the Boguchansky smelter is expected to be commissioned in 2013.
The agreement between RUSAL and RusHydro to jointly build the complex was signed in 2006. The Boguchanskoye complex is currently the world’s largest energy and metals project. Once completed, it will create approximately 10,000 jobs.
The public hearings on the Social and Environmental Impact Assessment of the Boguchanskaya Hydropower Plant construction project, which were conducted in line with international banking requirements, took place in July 2007 in the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions. In December 2007, a public hearing on the construction of the Boguchansky Smelter was carried out in the Boguchansky district. Public hearings on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) took place in the summer of 2008.
The smelter’s capacities will include a potroom, a casthouse and an anode plant, as well as power- generating units and relevant infrastructure. The facility will be equipped with energy efficient RA- 300 cells, designed by RUSAL’s Engineering and Technology Centre. The smelter will be the major consumer of the power, generated by the Boguchanskaya HPP. Upon completion, the Boguchansky smelter will create approximately 3,000 jobs. As of today, the smelter’s first start-up complex is 30% complete. The landworks are almost completed and the mounting of the solid-cast reinforced concrete structures is now underway along with the assembling of metal building structures.
The construction of the Boguchanskaya HPP on the Angara River began in 1974. Between 1994 and 2005 the construction works were suspended due to the economic turbulence and a drop in demand for power. The project was fully restarted in 2006, following an agreement between RUSAL and RusHydro to jointly create the Boguchansky complex.
The major construction works have been completed and as well as the closed thermal system of the first stage. The waterfront of the water dam is now high enough for to launch the first three machines.
The project cost is estimated at USD5 billion (excluding the costs of infrastructure and the inundation zone arrangements). The project is co-financed by RUSAL and RusHydro with their own and borrowed funds. In June 2010, Russia’s Vneshekonombank approved a 50 billion rubles loan for RUSAL and RusHydro to complete the complex construction.
The Lower Angara region complex development programme is the largest investment project in Russia for the last 25 years. The project, carried out by the Russian government in partnership with the country’s private business, includes the construction and expansion of the transport and power infrastructure, natural resources development and the building of a pulp-and-paper plant. The Boguchansky complex construction is central to this programme. Once completed, it will drive Lower Angara’s industrial growth, through securing power supply for the region.