Solikamsk magnesium plant: history and products

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Solikamsk Magnesium Plant (SMZ) is a leading enterprise in its industry. The basic technologies developed at the enterprise became the basis for the creation of many industries in the chemical industry. The history of the plant began in 1430.

S alt mines

S alt is a very profitable business at all times. Entrepreneurial merchants Kalinnikovs on the banks of the Usolka River in 1430 organized a s alt mine. The first buildings on the site of modern Solikamsk were wooden brine-lifting pipes, premises for s alt production. Simple production gradually expanded, in 1506 the city received its first name - Usolye on Kamsky. Later, the name was changed to Usolye Kamskoye, in the seventeenth century the well-growth s alt mine was already a big city and began to be called Sol Kamskaya, from which the modern name Solikamsk was formed.

Subsoil exploration

The successful transit position of the city allowed it in the 17th century to become a transshipment center for economic relations between the European part of Russia and China. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, several processing enterprises operated in the city.leather, tailoring workshops for leather goods, brick and wine factories, banks, gymnasiums, libraries and a cinematograph worked. The revolution of 1917 served as a sharp reduction in the population of the city and for some time it remained in the status of a village. The revival of the city was observed with the beginning of the formation of the country's industry. Already in the 1930s, the situation changed dramatically. The country began to actively develop numerous mineral deposits in the Perm region.

Factory for People's Industry

The discovery of the Verkhnekamsk potash s alt deposit occurred in 1907 during the drilling of the Lyudmilovskaya well on the Usolka River, but this discovery did not attract any special attention. Only in 1916, academician Kurnakov conducted the first studies of "red s alt", which showed a high percentage of potassium and sodium industrial s alts. The Soviet authorities were able to start exploration of the deposit only in the 1920s.

October 1925 is considered the beginning of the entire potash industry of the USSR: from the fifth to the sixth of October, the first drilling of a potash deposit was made, which gave rise to the future laying of several industrial enterprises in the Perm Territory. Solikamsk magnesium plant began its work in 1936. The main builders of the enterprise were political prisoners, repressed people, special settlers and a small number of the local population.

Pre-war achievements

March 14, 1936 - a memorable day in historyenterprise, on this day the Solikamsk magnesium plant produced the first metal ingot and laid the foundation for its history. On the territory of the country there were no enterprises similar to a running plant, but the value of the volatile metal was clear to the country's leadership. The best scientific forces were thrown into the development of production capacities and technologies. Technological innovations, first introduced and tested within the walls of the plant, became the property of many chemical industry enterprises.

Over the years of operation, the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant has become not only a pioneer in the development of new technologies. On the basis of the enterprise, numerous scientific researches were carried out, as a result of which the employees made discoveries in the chemical industry, created samples of fundamentally new technological equipment. The staff of the enterprise in different years demonstrated enthusiasm and interest in the development of the plant, which made it possible to obtain new types of products for the national economy. To date, SMZ is the oldest operating magnesium plant in the world.

War years

By the beginning of the Second World War, in 1941, the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant was the only enterprise in the country that supplied magnesium for the national economy and the army. The beginning of the war found the plant unfinished, which did not prevent the work team from fulfilling supply plans and constantly increasing production. During the war years, the production of "flying metal" was increased four times in comparison with the pre-war years. Selfless work of employees of the enterprisebrought victory closer, more than two thousand employees were awarded medals "For Valiant Labor during the War Years".

Post-war progress

During the years of post-war restoration, new workshops were laid at the enterprise, advanced technologies were mastered, and new types of equipment were developed. So, in 1946, the first pilot shop in the history of the industry was created, thanks to the work of which new technologies for processing raw materials were developed and put into production, technological processes and technological lines for the magnesium industry were tested. In the 1960s, lines for the processing of magnesium scrap were launched, technologies and apparatus for processing titanium-containing raw materials were created, and industrial tests were made of new technologies that had no analogues in world practice.

Changes at the turn of the century

Until the nineties of the last century, Solikamsk Magnesium Plant OJSC continued its innovative activities and increased production capacity, and in 1985 the enterprise received an award for its contribution to the victory - the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree. In 1991, the enterprise became a participant in foreign economic activity. A new technological turn began with the expansion of the types of products: in 1992, a titanium dioxide production line was launched. This allowed the plant to become a member of the International Association of Tantalum and Niobium Producers, and two years later to become a full member of the Association of Magnesium Producers.

1995-2003 passed under the sign of development and commissioningrare metal production. Modernization of production lines, mastering new technologies, increasing production capacity and output - these are the tasks that the administration and the staff, united under the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant brand, set for themselves. The history of the enterprise is a history of victories and new discoveries.

Mission, goals, objectives

JSC "Solikamsk Magnesium Plant" sees its mission in providing consumers with quality products, thereby contributing to the development of the domestic industrial high-tech market. Also, the company's team strives to provide international trade relations with the best raw materials for foreign customers. Building mutually beneficial relationships with all participants in production and trade processes is an important part of the company's activities. Much attention is paid to the environmental safety of chemical production, for this the company has developed a number of measures to minimize damage to the environment.

The mission of the company is to take care of the staff of the enterprise, for this a lot of attention is paid to improving the skills of employees, the regime of work, rest, compliance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, but not only this makes the Solikamsk magnesium plant a leader. Human Resources and Occupational He alth and Safety attract high-class specialists to the enterprise, care for veterans, provide medical care and much more.

Basicproduct types

Providing related industries with high-quality raw materials - this is the main task of the Solikamsk magnesium plant. Products manufactured at the enterprise are divided into three main types of production:

• Magnesium: primary magnesium, magnesium alloys, master alloys.
• Rare metal: compounds of niobium, tantalum; titanium sponges and titanium compounds; compounds of carbonates, oxides.
• Chemical: quicklime, calcium chloride in solution, liquid chlorine in containers.

All activities of the plant are provided by the employees of the enterprise, there are about three thousand of them, united in a single structure called the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant. Jobs for applicants can be found on the company's website or in recruiting agencies. Work at the SMZ is prestigious, there is always a place for an applicant with qualifications and a good salary.

The company's attitude to the metallurgical industry sometimes plays a cruel joke on consumer demands, which the Solikamsk magnesium plant cannot avoid. Decking is a popular and useful finishing and building material that has nothing to do with SMZ, which sometimes disappoints the end buyer.

Cooperation

Today, the Solikamsk magnesium plant is a monopoly in Russia for the production of titanium sponge and titanium alloys. These products are used in many industries:

• Aircraft and rocket science. media details,fuel tanks, separate hull and skin parts, compressor parts and so on.
• Gas and oil industry.
• Shipbuilding. Hull and plating parts for submarines and ships, propellers, pipes and so on.
• Chemical industry.
• Food industry.
• Medical industry.
• Military industry.

The company is constantly upgrading production lines. At the time of the founding of the plant, its production capacity was calculated to produce one thousand tons of magnesium during the year, by the present period, SMZ produces almost seventeen thousand tons of magnesium per year. The Solikamsk Magnesium Plant occupies an honorable place in the list of the most successful strategic enterprises in the country. The tenders announced by the company are mainly focused on the purchase of spare parts for equipment of production lines.

Responsibility

SMZ is an open joint stock company by its form of ownership. In this regard, at the time of transition to a new form of management, the enterprise issued packages of ordinary and preferred securities under the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant brand. The shares are highly quoted on the stock exchanges, brokers consider investments in SMZ securities to be promising in terms of obtaining long-term profits. This is due to the company's plans to increase magnesium production to forty-two thousand tons per year, and stable demand for the rest of the plant's products.

In 2015, there was a change in the Board of Directorsgeneral manager of the company "Solikamsk magnesium plant". A director, or rather a general director, is a person who is responsible to shareholders, employees and partners. According to a press release dated June 3, 2015, D. M. Melnikov.