The Third Golden Hephaestus National Industry Competition

The Third Golden Hephaestus National Industry Competition

On 4 July 2012, the Rixos President Hotel in Astana hosted the Award Ceremony held at the Gala Reception in honour of the Kazakhstan Mining & Metallurgy Days and the Third Astana Mining & Metallurgy International Congress (AMM 2012) to celebrate the winners of the Third Golden Hephaestus National Industry Competition.

The event is organised by the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Iteca Kazakhstan Exhibition Company. ENRC is the General Partner of the Golden Hephaestus Competition.

Under the terms and conditions of the Award, success and achievements in 2011 activities were taken into account, participation for all applicants was free of charge, and applications had been accepted during two months (starting 16 April 2012 through 15 June 2012).

The Competition Jury consists of 9 persons. The names of the Jury Members, traditionally, are not disclosed. Voting was carried out remotely by the Jury Evaluation Sheet for privacy. Each nomination includes five evaluation criteria. Those contestants were recognised winners who have scored the highest points on all the criteria. In cases where the contestants scored equal numbers of points, the winner was determined by drawing lots.

This year, the number of applicants (83 nominees) for the title of The Best increased, which testifies to the event’s growing popularity and significance for the industry. The top three award nominations this year were formed as follows: Metallurgist of the Year with personal and collective applications filed for 20 professionals; Researcher/Teacher of the Year with 13 applications considered; and The Best Thesis with 20 Kazakhstan university and college graduates submitting their papers on topics related to the development of Kazakhstan’s mining and metallurgy sector.

The Award Ceremony attended by foreign guests (AMM 2012 Congress speakers and delegates) and CEOs of domestic mining and metallurgical companies saw the 11 winners of the Competition receive their awards crafted in the form of gold-plated statuettes. Monetary awards were provided in four nominations.

The Third Golden Hephaestus National Industry Competition Winners:

1. Geologist of the Year – Sergei A. Shepelev, Director, Geological Expedition No. 7, VolkovGeologiya JSC.

2. Miner of the Year – Mukhamedzhan M. Turdakhunov, President, Sokolov-Sarbai Mining Production Association JSC (SSGPO).

3. Metallurgist of the Year – Askar M. Akhmetov, Blast Furnace Site Manager, ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC.

4. Project of the Year – Continuous Casting Billets Machine (CCBM No. 3), ArcelorMittal Temirtau.

5. Innovation Leader of the Year – Institute of High Technologies LLP, KazAtomProm NAC JSC, which implemented three innovative projects in 2011.

6. Local Content Leader of the Year – KazakhMys Corporation LLP.

7. The Best Energy Saving Solution – KazZinc LLP.

8. Researcher/Teacher of the Year – Marzhan B. Nurpeisova, Professor, Surveying and Geodesy Chair, K.I. Satpayev Kazakh National Technical University.

9. The Best Thesis of the Year – a student’s thesis by Albert M. Dileyev, 2012 graduate of the Karaganda State Technical University.

10. The Best Journalism Work on TV – Olga V. Shkret, Special Correspondent, Irbis TV Channel, Pavlodar.

11. The Best Journalism Work in Print – Alexei M. Bantsikin, Editor-in-Chief, Mining & Metallurgical Industry Magazine.


More Details of the Third Golden Hephaestus National Industry Competition Winners:

• Geologist of the Year – Sergei A. Shepelev is the pioneer discoverer of INKAI Deposit, Honorary Subsoil Prospector. He has been with VolgovGeologiya since 1979. Since 2006, he has served as Director, GRE-7 Branch. Over the past year, the most successful project developed and implemented by Mr. Shepelev was the use of The Principles of Economic Regionalisation by SL Method at the Stage of Geologic Exploration at Uranium Deposits in the Shu-Sarysu Depression (ShSD). It is noteworthy that GRE-7 Branch increased the scope of a more laborious process drilling by 46% in 2011 as compared to the previous year.


• Miner of the Year – Mukhamedzhan M. Turdakhunov is a talented top manager creatively introducing cutting-edge scientific achievements in mining and processing of minerals, which allowed elaborating a new company development strategy for 2010-2040 and starting up the implementation thereof. Over the past year, SSGPO constructed an additional process Section No. 17 featuring a production capacity of 1.2 million tons of concentrate per year. The facility is equipped with modern equipment. The start-up of Section No. 17 provides for producing primary iron ore concentrate in significant quantities and of higher quality. As a result, sales of SSGPO commercial products and exports to Russia and China increased.


• Metallurgist of the Year – Askar M. Akhmetov. Last year, he actively contributed to the implementation of the following projects: Aspiration of Blast Furnace No. 4 and Reconstruction of Blast Furnace No. 2. The latter project is one of ArcelorMitall Temirtau’s most ambitious ones included into the State Programme of Forced Industrial and Innovative Development of Kazakhstan, which received the Golden Hephaestus Award last year in The Best Project of the Year Category.


• Project of the Year – Continuous Casting Billets Machine (CCBM No. 3), ArcelorMittal Temirtau. The uniqueness of this ambitious project is in deploying CCBM No. 3 in a limited space, which required installation of exclusive equipment. The machine has a 9-meter bow. While implementing the project, an unparalleled operation of transporting a 135-ton support part of the rotary booth by air from Aktau to Karaganda was performed. The project was implemented within tight deadlines and ensured the creation of 99 new jobs. CCBM No. 3 design output capacity is 1.2 million tons of billets a year. This entirely satisfied the need in the factory-own billets and bars, expanded the range of finished products, and also enabled sales to other consumers.


• Innovation Leader of the Year – Institute of High Technologies LLP, KazAtomProm NAC JSC, which implemented three innovative projects in 2011: 1. Reducing the influence of mineralogical composition of carbonate ores onto the formation of mudding; 2. Development of a mobile modular cavitation-type unit to improve the technology of cleaning and washing out geotechnical wells, whose performance the economic profitability of uranium mining depends on; and 3. Construction of new design filters with long service life periods. Implementation of these projects envisages the possibility of cheapening the natural uranium production costs up to 30% due to introduction of innovative high science-intensive technologies.


• Local Content Leader of the Year – KazakhMys Corporation LLP. The share of domestic goods in the 2011 procurement by KazakhMys Corporation LLP amounted to more than 21%. The Kazakhstan content in the completed works reached 99.7%, whereas in services it amounted to 98.9%. In total, the percentage of local content in the 2011 amount of procured goods, works and services amounted to 52.5%. During the reporting period, KazakhMys Corporation cooperated with 311 local suppliers, providers of goods and services. The 2011 costs of educating, training, and retraining of staff made up 0.18% in pro ratio to the annual income.


• The Best Energy Saving Solution – KazZinc LLP. According to the unanimous opinion of the Jury Members, KazZinc became the winner in this category for its long-standing contribution to cutting down the consumption of energy resources and increasing the efficiency of the use thereof in the mining industry. A new technology called New Metallurgy, unparalleled in the world, providing for atmospheric leaching of low-grade concentrates recently developed by the company enables KazZinc to make its production processes both more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient.


• Researcher/Teacher of the Year – Marzhan B. Nurpeisova, Professor, Surveying and Geodesy Chair, K.I. Satpayev Kazakh National Technical University, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the Academy of Mining Sciences of Russia, Academician of the Ecology of Kazakhstan. Ms. Nurpeisova is a prominent scholar, educator, widely known outside the Republic of Kazakhstan. Her textbooks Geodesy, Mine-Surveying Instruments, Space Geodesy, and Geomechanics provide good tutorials for students. Professor Nurpeisova delivers lectures at a high scientific and methodological level using new-generation instruments and in an interactive mode.


• The Best Thesis of the Year – a thesis entitled The Development of a Technological Process and Equipment for High-Frequency Treatment of Mining Equipment Components at KLMZ by Albert M. Dileyev, a 2012 graduate of the Metallurgy Department, Karaganda Technical University. The unit for hardening by high-frequency currents developed by him for the Heat Treatment Shop of KazakhMys Corporation’s KLMZ Plant, as compared to the basic one, is more rational as it reduces the time of heat treatment of parts and components.


• The Best Journalism Work on TV – Olga V. Shkret, Special Correspondent, Irbis TV Channel, Pavlodar. The Jury recognised her TV broadcasts About New Production Facilities of Aluminium of Kazakhstan JSC and About Implementation of the State Programme of Forced Industrial and Innovative Development at the East Coal Mining Pit in Ekibastuz to be the most striking and interesting TV programmes about Kazakhstan’s mining industry.


• The Best Journalism Work in Print – Alexei M. Bantsikin for his highly relevant article Innovations That Bring Profit. He started his journalism career in 1995. Since June 2009, he has been Editor-in-Chief of the Mining & Metallurgical Industry Magazine. Journalist A.M. Bantsikin’s publications are distinguished by a rigorous analysis combined with a polemical nature, in-depth insight and simplicity of presentation.

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