Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine

Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine 

(full name, Fiftieth Anniversary of the October Revolution Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine), a large enterprise in the USSR for nonferrous metallurgy. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Balkhash, on the shore of the Bertys bay. It produces copper, molybdenum concentrates and intermediate products, perrhenate of ammonium, sulfuric acid, and so forth. It was established in April 1958 on the basis of the Balkhash copper works (built in 1938), which merged with the Kounradskii Copper Mine, the Gul’shad Lead and Zinc Mine, and a plant for the refining of nonferrous metals. Methods have been introduced in the combine for obtaining rhenium from the by-products of hydrometallurgical production (1948) and from the washing acid of sulfuric acid production (1963). The production of rubberized components was organized in 1956. The combine has perfected the extraction of sulfuric acid (the first line was established in 1962 and the second in 1966) and mill boring (in 1962 the BSSh-1 and P-25 machines and in 1964 the SBSh-250 machines). An automatic line was constructed in 1963 for the production of oxygen-free copper-cast bars. The technology of smelting rolled concentrates was begun in 1966. By 1968 the gross output of the combine had risen by a factor of 2.7 in comparison with 1958. Refined Balkhash copper was registered on the London exchange of nonferrous metals in 1967. The combine was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966.

P. P. MATIUSHIN