Business
Commercial Ferrosilicon Production at Steelmin
Commercial Ferrosilicon Production at Steelmin.
About this update from Red Rock Resources Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 3528V Red Rock Resources plc 23 July 2018 \n\nRed Rock Resources PLC\n(\"Red Rock\" or the \"Company\")\nCommercial Ferrosilicon Production at Steelmin \n \n23 July 2018 \nRed Rock Resources Plc, the natural resource development company with interests in gold and steel feed materials, announces, further to the announcement of 21st February 2018, an update on progress in commissioning of the ferrosilicon plant at Jajce, Bosnia owned by a subsidiary of Steelmin Limited (\"Steelmin\"). Steelmin is 22% owned by Red Rock.\nOn 5th May 2018 the commissioning process began as Steelmin began to heat and power up Furnace 5 at Jajce. continuing over subsequent weeks to build to full power and to conduct laboratory checks on material being produced.\nThe plant is now in commercial production, running at rated capacity of 24MW and Steelmin currently forecasts that it will be EBITDA positive for the month of July. \nSteelmin's plant will initially consist of the refurbished Furnace V with capacity for production of 29,000t of ferrosilicon p.a. and 5,800t of microsilica, and after a planned refurbishment of a second furnace will have a combined annual capacity of 48,720 tonnes ferrosilicon (FeSi 75) and 9,700 tonnes of microsilica.\n \nAndrew Bell, Chairman of Red Rock comments: \"Management at Steelmin has delivered an important milestone in achieving stable commercial production from Furnace V. We expect to see progress continuing over coming months.\"\n \nSteelmin - Background\nThe Steelmin plant and facility is located in central Bosnia, 104 kilometres north west of Sarajevo. The complex, formerly part of Electrobosna, was originally built in the 1970s by Elkem, a major silicon and alloy producer based in Norway, and was one of the largest and best known producers of ferrosilicon and silicon metal in Europe. It was closed down in 1992 due to the Bosnian War, was then privatised and the six furnaces were sold off in two separate parts in 2000. The plant was brought back online until finally being shuttered again in 2004 due to increasing exports pressure from Chinese producers. \nAnti-dumping regulations have since been implemented by the European Commission; which significantly reduced both Chinese and Russian exports into Europe, allowing prices to stabilize and rise over time. The ...