Four Derrick fine screening units are now being assembled in Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise of Kachkanar (Vanadium JSC, part of Evraz Group); this is part of the program aimed at upgrading the equipment and ore pretreatment technology and at raising the production efficiency. The assembling is being dealt with by the experts of the general contractor; the units are expected to be launched in December 2006. They should raise the quality of ore screening from 34%-42% to 81%-85%, which has been estimated to skip a few third-stage grinding mills. This, it its turn, should result in

Ural Airlines have recently piloted their new Tasting on Board project on Moscow-Yekaterinburg flights. Up to October 2006, economy class passengers were only offered free alcohol on regular international flights, yet now those traveling from Moscow to Yekaterinburg on a Friday night (flight 265 from Domodedovo airport at 10 PM) can have strong drinks if they want to. These passengers will be offered cognac accompanied by an expert’s mini-lecture throughout October. The lecturer will brief them on the differences between cognac and brandy, tips for tasting it and advice on hors d’oeuvres that

Sverdlovsk Gubernskiy Bank assessed its success in nine months of 2006. The bank’s balance sheet total amounted to 8.02bn RUR on October 1, 2006 (compared to 5.45bn on January 1, 2006), its owned capital came to 839,67m RUR (compared to 615.46m RUR on January 1). The net wealth rose by 46.9% and reached the point of 7.71bn RUR (compared to 5.25bn on January 1), the income-earning assets amounted to 5.52bn RUR (an increase of 32.1%). The loan portfolio (commercial loans, discounted bills, interbank loans) went up by 20.6% and came to 3.8bn RUR (compared to 3.15bn on January 1, 2006). The

The Court of Verknyaya Pyshma completed the hearings connected with the criminal suit of accountant of Sredneuralskiy subsidiary of UralTransBank Oksana Schegolkova who was charged with theft and fraud. According to the prosecution, Ms Schegolkova had stolen over 10m RUR from the accounts of the bank’s clients, so they insisted on the maximal penalty of 10 years in prison. This legal action was initiated by the local prosecution bodies at the end of 2005; the charge concerned Part 4 of Article 159 of Russian Criminal Code (large-scale fraud). The documents were placed with the court this

OGK-1, the First Generating Company, raised the productivity of its electric power stations by 13.6% (against January-September 2005): it came to 35,214.71m kilowatt-hours. The productive electricity supply came to 33,596.43m kilowatt-hours. The heat supply amounted to 848,020 gigacalories, with sales in the free trade sector and on the one-day-in-advance market growing up to 5,057.88m kilowatt-hours in nine months of 2006. The stations produced 3,600.93m kilowatt-hours in September, with productive supply amounting to 3,431.71m. The heat supply amounted to 39,040 gigacalories, with sales in

Chelyabinsk Coal Company reduced its coal shipments by 13.1% in nine months of 2006 compared to one year earlier. It shipped 677,200 tons of coal to Chelyabinsk Generating Company in January-September 2006 (this is 121.1% more than in 2005), 1,297,300 tons to South Ural power station (this in only 68.2% of the figures for 2005), 5,200 tons to ChelyabOblTopProm (96% less than in 2005); the other consumers received 62,400 tons (163.3% more than a year earlier), the company’s spokesperson said to UrBC representative.

Magnesite Industrial Complex produced 6.6% more refractory goods in nine months of 2006 compared to one year earlier; the total amount came to 287,900 tons; the commercial powders output rose by 14% and reached the point of 594,200 tons. The enterprise shipped 9.7% more commercial powders in January-September 2006 than one year earlier; the figure came to 594,200 tons. The shipments went up by 2.9% and amounted to over 274,000 tons. The shipments of refractory goods and commercial powders to Russian consumers went up by .9% and 6.2%, respectively, and came to over 244,000 tons and over