T H E OLD F R O N T I E R OF T S A R I S T R U S S I A

A. M. V a r t a n y a n

Kazakhstan. At one t ime this word was associated with steppes burned by the sun, with pathet ic tents of no- mads, and with people harassed by tsarist bureaucrats and local feudal Iords.

Thanks to the wise Leninist nat ional pol i t ica l policy carried out by the Communist Party and the tremendous help of a l l nations in the USSR, after a compara t ive ly short t ime in history Soviet Kazakhstan has made the giant

jump from backwardness to progress and has changed from an agrarian semifeudal frontier of tsarist Russia to a flout ishing industrial and agrarian republic. Here there have been created powerful industrial centers of the meta l lur - gical , fuel, power, chemical , and machine construction industries. Thousands of plants equipped with the most advanced technology have been bui l t ,and beautiful c i t ies have been raised. The appearance of the Kazakh steppes has been changed beyond recognition. Now Kazakhstan is a great producer of grain, meat , and other agr ica l tura i products.

In creat ing native industries and developing agt icul ture the republic has been aided by the whole cour~ry.

The workers of Russia, the Ukraine, White Russia, and the other republics helped with the industry of Kazakhstan. They made a great contribution to mastering the tremendous natural resources of the area. to planning the industrial giants, and to the forming and developing of the industry and agriculture of the republic.

The brotherly help of the peoples of the USSR aided in the powerful development of the indus triM forces of the republic and, as a result, there has been a continuous increase in the contribution of Kazakhstan to the national economy of the country. Now it has developed into mutual help.

Kazakhstan now supplies to the industry of the USSR lead and z i n c a significant portion o~ copper, alumina.

and large quantit ies of cadmium, gold, silver, rare metals, and othe~ nonferrous meta ls . In the republic there has been created a third coal base for the country, Karaganda and ~kibastuz, and a major power base. Production re - serves of iron and other ores for the steel industry and of nonore meta l lu rg ica l raw mater ia ls have been explored.

The accomplishments of Soviet Kazakhstan in the development of their industry are the result of the tremendous

help and the constant care and at tent ion given to it by the Central Commit tee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, by the Politbureau of the Cen t ra l Commit tee , and personally by Comrade L. I. Brezhnev the General Secre- tary of the Central Commit tee of the Communist Party of the USSR, This is confirmed by the creat ion and deve! - opment of the iron and steel industry of Kazakhstan. The first ferrous meta l lurg ica l plant in the republic, the Donsk

Chromite Mine, was put into operation at the supplies of chromite ore explored in Aktyubinsk Region. tn 1940 tNs was the base for the start of construction of the Aktyubinsk Ferroalloy Plant.

The treacherous a t tack on the Soviet Union of Fascist Germany and the temporary loss of the iron and steel base of the South required a very rapid increase in the capac i ty of existing eastern p lan t s the construction of new iron and steel plants, and a strengthening of their ore base. In Iune 1942. despite the tremendous diff icult ies of wart ime, Dzhezdinsk Manganese Mine was placed in operation in Karaganda Region. This played a tremendous role in providing manganese to the steel plants of the Urals and Siberia.

Another great victory of steel-industry workers was the placing in service in January, 1943 the Aktyubinsk Ferroalloy Plant, whose ferrochrome made it possible to increase the production of high quali ty steels which are so necessary for war production. In December 1944, at Kazakh Metal lurgical Plant the Ural steel melter i. Gotubevyi mel ted the first heat of Kazakhstan steel and the plant was placed into the service of the existing plants of the country.

First Vice Chairman of the Soviet of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR. Translated from Metallurg, No. 12, pp. 9-11, December, 1972.

01973 Consultants Bureau, a division of Plenum Publishing Corporation, 227 FC"est 17th .Street, New 1 York, N. Y. 10011. All rights reserved. This article cannot be reproduced for any purpose ~hatsoever without permission of the publisher. A copy of this article is available from the publisher for $15.00.

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Fig. 1. During the days of the work of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union friendship was born between the Kazakh steel mel te r A. Daribaev and E. Proskurin, a steel mel te r from Zaporozh 'e . The

steel melters mel ted Heats of Friendship in the furnaces at Zaporozh 'e and Karaganda. In the photo: E. Proskurin

(center) and A. Daribaev (extreme right) after the Heat of Friendship mel ted in the converter shop of Karaganda Meta l lurgica l Combine, Photo by Ya. Turin and O, Popov

of TASS Pictorial Review.

Fig. 2. The 1150 slabbing mi l l of Karaganda Meta l lur -

g ica l Combine. Photo by Ya. Turin of TASS Pictor ia l Review.

Under the conditions of wart ime, aggravated

by the l ack of living faci l i t ies in the area, by the

lack of a constructional base, and bv the acute ab - sence of qualif ied builders and steelworkers, the

pioneer in steel making in Kazakhstan was born.

In more recent years there has been a sharp

increase in work on the explorat ion of supplies of iron, chrome, and manganese ores, of coals for e l e c - t r i ca l and coke production, and of fluxes and ref rac- tory mater ia ls necessary for steel production. At the present t ime the republic is one of the largest suppliers of iron ore mater ia ls .

Sokolovsk-Sarbiask Mining and Beneficiation Combine has been bui l t on the base of the Sokolovsk and Sarbaisk deposits in Kustanai Region. It supplies high quali ty raw mate r ia l to Magnitogorsk and Ka-

raganda Metal lurgical Combines and a number of the steel plants of the Urals and Siberia.

The construction of the combine was started in 1954. After only three years steel plants had re- ceived the first 100,000 tons of iron ore. During the

15 years of existence of the plant i t has mined 225 mi l l ion tons of ore and shipped about 150 mi l l ion

tons. The share of Sokolovsk-Sarbaisk Combine is about 8% of the country 's to ta l output of iron ore ready for use. Powerful e lec t r ic locomotives and

excavators, dump trucks with capaci t ies of 25 to 40 tons, and other mine transportation equipment op- erate in the mines of the combine. The ore prepa-

ration complex, consisting of crushing and sorting and of benef ic ia t ion plants is equipped with high production technology. The annual capac i ty of the 14 sections of the plant for wet magnet ic separation is more than 13 mi l l ion tons of iron ore concentrate with an iron content of more than 65% Here there was started in 1965, for the first t ime in the country, the production of i ron-ore pel lets . At present t ime

the capac i ty for their production is 8.4 mi l l ion tons,

Construction of the plant is continuing. Its

annual capac i ty for the mining of i ron-ore is being increased to 35 mi l l ion tons with the production

from this of 17.7 mi l l ion tons of ore for shipment. In addit ion, work is being done in the combine, and construction has started on a pi lot plant for the c o m - binat ion ut i l izat ion of ores. which will make it pos- sible to obtain annual ly in addit ion more than two mi l l ion tons of iron concentrate and thousands of tons of cobalt , copper, zinc, sulfur, and other va lu- able components.

At present, using the Lisakovsk deposit as a base, a second powerful ore mining plant is being

bui l t in Kustanai Region, the Lisakovsk Mining and Beneficiat ion Combine. A feature of this deposit is the fact that here the l imoni te l ies prac t ica l ly on the surface, e l imina t ing the need for a large amount of removal of the

overburden. The annual planned capac i ty of the plant for the mining of ore is 36 mi l l ion tons with a production

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from it of 17.1 mi l l ion tons of concentrate . In addition, construction has been started in the area of the third rain = ing and benef ic ia t ion plant of the republic, the Kacharsk Combine, with a mining and benef ic ia t ion caoac i ty of 21 mi l l ion tons of high grade magnet i te ore with an annual output of 10.8 mi l l ion tons of fluxed magneti~:e ore pel lets . The placing in service of this combine i s spec i f i ed in the Tenth Five Year Plan. The other major ore mining region of Kazakhstan is Karaganda Region. The locat ion here of the Atasu i ron-ore deposit serves as a base for the Karaganda Metal lurgical Combine. Here about three mi l l ion tons of i ron-ore are mined annual ly by the

open pit method.

To supply the blast furnaces of the Kazakhstan Magnitog0rsk with high-qual i ty i ron-ore concentrates i t has been decided to construct a benef ic ia t ion plant at this deposit and to develop an underground mine with an apmuai capac i ty of up to six mi l l ion tons. It is expected that by the end of the Five Year Plan the to ta l capac i ty of the Kazakhstan i ron-ore base wi l l reach 62 mi l l ion tons of i ron-ore per year.

Among the mining plants of the Kazakh SSR a major place is occupied by the Donsk Chromite-Ore Plant.

The chromite deposits on which this plant is based are unique. At present more than three mi l l ion tons of chromite ore are mined here annual ly , which is more than 40% of the world total . The Donsk Chromite=Ore Plant supplies

the meta l lurg ica l , chemica l , and refractory plants of our country with raw mater ia l . The placing in service in the near future of a benef ic ia t ion complex wil l make i t possible to improve the qual i ty of the ore shipped, to use leaner ores, and to increase the annual capaci ty of the plant to 4.2 mi l l ion tons of chromite-ore .

Therefore, the republic promises to remain a major supplier of i ron-ore mater ia ls and chromi te-ore to the

nat ional economy of the Soviet Union.

Qual i ta t ive ly this new stage in the development of the steel industry of Kazakhstan clears the way ior the Karaganda Metal lurgical Combine. Here in December, 1957 they laid the foundation of the first blast furnace in

Kazakhstan, with a volume of 1513 ma~ The pig iron obtained in July 1960 symbolized the birth of a major steel

industry in Kazakhstan.

"In this significant fact ," spoke D. A. Kunaev, member of the Politbureau of the Cen~ral Commit tee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and First Secretary Df the Central Commit tee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan at the meet ing celebrat ing the starting up of the first blast furnace, "we have again found a shining manifestat ion of the Leninist nat ional pol i t ica l pol icy of our country and its "tireless at tent ion "to the development

of the industrial forces of Kazakhstan."

In 1961 the plant placed in service the second blast furnace, with a volume of 1719 ma, in 196g an open hearth shop, in 1966 the 1150 slab mil l , and in 1967 the 1700 hot s tr ip-rol l ing mi l l . With the starting up of these units Karaganda Metal lurgical Combine is an integrated mi l l . In 1971 the third blast furnace, with a volume of 2700 m a, was placed in service, and at the present t ime a fourth, with a volume of 3200 ma is under construction. During these years coke and chemica l production, coal benef ic ia t ing and sintering plants, and a complex of auxi l - iary shops has been placed in service. A large oxygen-converter shop, equipped with 250-ton converters, has been

bui l t in the combine.

The steelworkers of the Kazakhstan Magnitogorsk are the pioneers in mastering a number of s tee!making umts and production operations. In the blast furnace, for example , they were first to use in jec t ion into the heal th of the furnaces of coal dust and a coa l -heavy fuel oil mixture to replace coke. which is in short, supply, under production conditions. The coke chemica l personnel mastered the production of espec ia l ly pure benzol and diammonium

phosphate.

The open hearth shop of the combine was the first ~o construct under ~ract ieal conditions so - t a i l ed , modu- larly located, two 600-ton furnaces. To speed up melt ing of the steel, this shop uses compressed a i r . The use of this method made it possible for the open hearth personnel of Kazakhstan to establish an a l l -Union record for the minimum heat t ime in large, open-hear th furnaces operating without oxygen or natural gas.

The 1700 continuous hot-str ip mi l l is a unique piece of s t e e l - m i l l equipment, t 'he str ip-rol l ing speed on it is equal to the speed of an express train. The annual production of the mi l l is 4.8 mi l l ion tons of hot-rolled strip from 12 to 1.2 mm thick. At the present t ime much work is being done here on fu11 automat ion of the rolling and

inspection of the steel during roll ing.

With the introduction of new faci l i t ies for rolling, the 1700 and 1400 cold- ro l led strip mills, Kazakhstan b e - comes a major supplier of wide, co ld- ro l led strip, including galvanized, a luminized , p las t ic coated, and o'ehers. The rolling production of the combine will also be directed in the direct ion of producing ecanomieaI bent shapes which are in short supply at present and of producing e lec t r ic welded pipe of different cross sections.

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Kazakh Metallurgical Plant is a specialized plant for the production of bars, reinforcing, and roofing sheet supplied to the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. In the Tenth Five Year Plan major reconstruction of it is planned with specialization in the production of rolled products from high-quality steels which will be melted in electric furnaces and completely continuously cast.

Aktyubinsk Ferroalloy Plant is the largest plant in the country for the production of iron and chrome base ferroalloys. The further development of ferroalloy production in the republic is the result of the construction of the Ermakov Ferroalloy Plant, which this year is producing about 250,000 tons of ferrosilicon. In the future this plant will also produce silicomanganese, ferrochrome, and a number of other ferroalloys using Donsk chromite, Dzhezdinsk manganese ores, and other raw materials.

A number of all-Union and republic scientific-research and planning institutes are working on solutions of the most important and pressing problems facing the iron and steel plants of the republic. These include the Cen- tral Scientific-Research Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy, the A. A. Baikov Institute of Metallurgy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Scientific-Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, the State Union Institute for the Planning of Ore-Mining Industry Plants, the State Union Institute for the Planning of Metal- lurgical Plants, the State Scientific-Research and Planning Institute for the Nickel Industry, the All-Union Scien- title-Research Institute for Nonferrous Metallurgy, the Kazakhstan Polytechnic Institute, and others.

The increasing economic potential of the Soviet Union and the high level of development of the industrial forces of the republic in combination with the very rich raw material and fuel resources have made it possible for the large metallurgical plants of formerly backward and semifeudal Kazakhstan to now annually produce up to 3.4 million tons of cast iron, 4 million tons of steel, 3.5 million tons of rolled ferrous metals. 3.2 million tons of coke, and 0,5 million tons of ferroalloys and to mine more than 18. 6 million tons of iron- ore. O n the basis of these iron and steel plants such industrial cities as Temir Tau, Rudnyi, Karazhal. Khrom Tau, Ermak, Lisakovsk, and others have grown.

Now hundreds of thousands of workers are working in the iron and steel plants of Kazakhstan. Miners and beneficiating plant workers, sintering plant workers and coke and chemical plant workers, blast-furnace workers and ferroalloy-plant workers, steel-melting workers and roll ing-mill workers march in the first ranks of the build- ers of a communist society and are a true and reliable support of the Communist Party.

The country rates highly their workers' heroism For attaining high production figures, the collectives of Sokolovsk-Sarbaisk Mining and Beneficiating Combine and of Donsk Chromite Ore Plant have been awarded the Order of the Workers Red Banner. Hundreds of the steelworkers of the republic have received high government awards. The names of many of them are known far beyond the boundaries of Kazakhstan. These include the senior converter operator of Karaganda Metallurgical Combine and Hero of Socialist Labor Altynbek Daribaev. In 1971 he took the initiative in the competit ion for attaining high hourly productivity for machines, equipment, and units and for the rational utilization of working t ime. His initiative was widely supported both within the republic and beyond its boundaries. A. Daribaev is in competit ion with the distinguished steelworker from Zaporozhstal Plant, E. Proskurin.

The distinguished excavator operator from Sokolovsk-Sarbaisk Mining and Beneficiation Combine and Hero of Socialist Labor E. Antoshkin took the initiative inestablishinga personal plan for increasing labor productivity in the Ninth Five Year Plan. He struggled to deliver in one year more than two million cubic meters of rock with a single excavator. E. Antoshkin fulfilled his obligation with honor, and his initiative found wide support among the collective of the combine and in the republic.

Honored working glory has been obtained by such steelworkers as the melters of Karaganda Combine S.Kakenov and O. Imanbaev, the furnace operator V. Sergienko, and the roller E. Syehev, the excavat ing-machine operators of Sokolovsk-Sarbaisk Mining and Beneficiation Combine M. Mediubaev and N. Rozhkov, the drill operator I. Lokun, the converter-crew leader of Aktyubinsk Ferroalloy Plant P. Smolenov, the senior melter and Hero of Socialist Labor Ch. Tokbaev, the senior melter of Erkmanovsk Ferroalloy Plant N. Kugaevskii, the dump truck driver of Donsk Chro- mite-Ore Plant A. Pestov, and many, many others.

Having prepared to properly greet the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Re- publics, the collectives of the ferrous metallurgical plants of the republic have widely embraced socialist compe- tition for early fulfillment of the tasks of the Ninth Five Year Plan and for bringing to life the decisions of the 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The successes with which the steelworkers of Kanzakhstan have completed the second year of the five year plan produce confidence in the fact that they will honorably cope with the problems set before them and will make an honorable contribution to the creation of the material and technicalbase of Communism in our country.

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