Kazakhmys copper output down to 199.700 t in January-June 05/04

/REUTERS, Almaty, Tatyana Seroshtanova July 4, 05/ - Kazakhstan copper corporation Kazakhmys lowered its refined copper output to 199,700 tons in January-June of 2005 from 212,000 in the same period of last year. "Basing on the strategy of preservation of treasurers of the soil, i.e. in order to provide reliable ore base the corporation extracts all ores, including the poorest. That's why refined copper output has decreased in comparison with similar period of last year", - Vladislav Nikolayev said. The company has increased volume of investments in the first half-year of 2005 to $125 m. from $73 m. in the first half-year of 2004. Among total volume of exported refined copper, 48% were exported to China, the remaining part - to Europe. The whole metallic zinc and copper rod were exported to China. Below is comparative data of Kazakhmys's output: ---------------------------------------------------- Jan- Jan Jan- Jun, 05 May, 05 Jun, 05 ------------------------- ------- ------- ------- Refined copper (tons) 199,700 166,200 212,00 Copper rod (tons) 5,900 4,000 25,900 Metallic zinc 28,600 24,300 1,400 Coal (m. tons) 3.3 2.7 3.8 Ore (m. tons) 19.4 16.1 17.6 Granulated silver (tons)* 329.0 267.0 257.0 Gold bullion (kg)* 1,454.0 1,064.0 654.0 ---------------------------------------------------- *- without tolling Commodity output volume has increased in monetary terms to KZT103.3 bn. ($764 m.) from 82.3 bn. one year before. Kazakhmys is among ten biggest of copper producer in the world. It outputs up to 90% of its total volume in Kazakhstan. [2005-07-04]