/REUTERS, Almaty, Tatyana Seroshtanova, July 03, 03/ - in the first 6 months of 2003 Kazakhstan copper corporation Kazakhmys decreased production volumes of refined copper to 203,200 tons from 216,700 tons for the similar period of the previous year, company informed.

Earlier the corporation informed about its intention to keep the volume of production at the level of the last year - 432,000 tons.

Production output for the first six months decreased to KZT58.863 bn (about $390 m) from KZT60.663 bn of the similar period in 2002.

Below is comparable information on production of different types of products in Kazakhmys:

---------------------------------------------------------
                             January-  January-  January-
                                 June       May      June
                                 2003      2003      2002
---------------------------  --------  --------  --------
Refined copper (th. tons)       203.2     166.2     216.7
Zinc concentrate (th. tons)      42.9      35.7      34.4
Coal (m tons)                     3.9       3.1       3.5
Ore (m tons)                     20.7      17.2      20.6
Silver in granules (tons)         306       251       333
Gold bullion (kg)               1,393     1,121     2,297
Copper rod (th. tons)            28.9      23.7      32.4
---------------------------------------------------------

Kazakhmys Corporation that takes 9th place in the world on copper volume production exports half of its products to China, another half - to European countries.

Shareholders of Kazakhmys, which produces up to 90% of total volume of Kazakhstan copper, are Samsung that owns 25.33% of shares, RSE Information and cost center - 24.65%, Samsung Hong Kong limited - 17.22%, Future capital - 10%, ABN AMRO bank Kazakhstan - 9.51%, other shareholders have 13.29%.

[2003-07-03]