:: Kazzinc to Build New Copper Smelter by 2008

Kazakhstan's largest zinc producer, Kazzinc, will start building a copper smelter and refinery in the second half of this year to turn raw materials into metal for sale to China and elsewhere, a senior company executive said on Monday. Production at the 70,000-tonne-per-year plant in eastern Kazakhstan is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2008 with the intention of reaching full capacity by January 2009, Kazzinc President Nick Popovic told Reuters.