Oriel Resources has launched the remaining two furnaces at its Russian ferro-chrome smelter after a short delay relating to high raw material prices, and now expects capacity to hit 148,000tpy, and is expected it to eventually reach 180,000tpy in 2011 as the second phase of the project comes on stream. “The remaining two furnaces have been commissioned and are due to be fully operational by the end of the first quarter,” the company said, referring to its Tikhvin smelter in NW Russia. The third and fourth furnaces at Tikhvin, 200km east of St Petersburg, were ready in December but Oriel delayed their launch due to a global shortage of chromite ore.
