The Government of the Russian Federation and the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources made Karabashmed (copper producer based in Chelyabinsk Region that belongs to Russian Copper Company) Leader of Nature-Conservative Projects in Russia. The company’s General Director Nikolai Azarov received the Order of Russia’s Environmental Shield in the course of the awarding ceremony in the Kremlin Palace, and Karabashmed itself got the honorary title after winning the competition for Leaders of Nature-Conservative Projects in Russia. The panel of the assessors included the representatives of the Russian Federation Government and of the Government of Moscow, of the ministries involved in environmental protection and industry, and some experts from the scientific, educational establishments and environmental organizations, reports the press officer for Russian Copper Company.

This is Karabashmed’s second conservation award obtained from the Department of Social Development and Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation Government and the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources. In 2005, the medal for Environmental Protection Achievements was given to the company’s Chief Engineer Yuri Serebrennikov.

This year’s awarding ceremony coincided with the All-Russian conference called New Governmental Policy on Real Economy held in the Kremlin on November 13 and November 14, 2006. It was attended by the Russian Government, the special committees of the State Duma and the Soviet of the Federation.

The federal bodies like the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Industry, Power Engineering, and Science, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and Rosprirodnadzor, the environmental authority, are interested in expanding the successful application of ‘green’ technologies and programs in the regions of Russia; the program employed by Karabashmed is one such example. The area reclamation was started in 1998; Russian Copper Company has so far invested over $120m in the production upgrading and restoring the city of Karabash; it managed to introduce a unique oxygen station, the water recycling system, the facility for dry cleaning of gases and making them dust-free, the close water slag-granulating cycle, and the facility for recycling sulfur emitted from gases and in the course of sulfurous-acid production. The company competed renovation of the gas flue system at the metallurgical shop and built bag filters for cleaning metallurgical gases. In addition, the plant now has Russia’s only 54-meter-high Ausmelt furnace that will begin operating at the end of 2006.