Boliden increases production at Rönnskär

Boliden’s Board of Directors has decided to invest SEK 36 million in optimising production at the Rönnskär copper smelter’s electrolytic refinery. The investment will generate an increase in the production of copper cathodes by some 16,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes.

“The investment should be seen as part of Boliden’s ongoing integration process within the copper smelting operations. Increasing the capacity of the electrolytic refinery will enable Rönnskär to process more copper anodes from the Harjavalta copper smelter. The increased finished copper output will be sold to existing customers via Rönnskär, says Jan Johansson President and CEO for Boliden.” The investment will yield a 4 per cent reduction in Rönnskär’s refining cost for copper. The estimated payback time is approximately 2 years from the production start-up. In concrete terms, the investment will entail the installation of 52 new electrolysis cells and of equipment designed to increase the production efficiency of the electrolytic refinery. Work on the project is scheduled to start in September 2006 and the new facility is expected to be operational within one year. www.boliden.com