Baku, Azerbaijan, April 26
Trend:
The refined copper and copper alloy export increased by 7 percent in Kazakhstan, while the profit decreased by 8 percent, compared to last year's stats, Trend reports citing Kazakhmys.
Some 23.3 million tons of copper ore extraction accounted for the first quarter of 2019 (1Q2019), which is 17.5 percent more than in the same period last year (23.2 million tons).
The volume of copper concentrates extraction also increased by 40.9 percent reaching 3.7 million tons, compared to 2.7 million tons of the same period last year, 146,300 tons being the copper itself (an increase of 17.4 percent).
In contrast, the volume of copper-zinc ore extraction decreased by 22.7 percent reaching 1 million tons compared to 1.3 million tons extracted last year.
The refined copper and copper alloy extraction for the period of January to March 2019 amounted to 115,200 tons with an increase of 10.1 percent. The extraction in the same period last year totaled 104,600 tons with an increase of only 2.5 percent.
Karaganda region proved to be the leader by copper extraction among other Kazakhstan regions. Exactly 77.4 percent of all copper extractions in Kazakhstan accounted for Karaganda region (89,200 tons). East Kazakhstan region accounted for 18.7 percent of all extraction in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhmys Holding is a major copper manufacturer in Kazakhstan. The company’s activity covers all stages of copper manufacturing.
In 2018 the company manufactured 238,900 tons of copper cathodes with an increase of 2.2 percent (+5,100 tons) compared to the statistics of 2017. In 2018 the total volume of the processed copper amounted to 30 million tons. In 2019 the company is planning to manufacture 238,600 tons of copper cathodes.
The launch of the second heat-treatment furnace stationed in the Zhezkazgan Mine Metallurgical Complex turned to be among the major events of last year. This launch will allow for the cooper extracted in Bozshakol mine and Aktogay mine to be processed faster.
In the framework of Kazakhmys’ mineral raw material base expansion a new geological exploration company “Kazakhmys Barlau”. The company is to realize projects on copper, zinc, lead and rare earth metals exploration.
Kazakhmys Barlau began to implement the projects near Balkhash, Zhezkazgan and Satbayev cities. The work is taking place in eleven sites, seven of them being new, while four of them are already operating projects of Kazakhmys.
The total funding amount of projects amounts up to 4 billion tenge. In 2019 company is planning to implement an about 65,000 linear meters of drilling, 1000 linear meters of well logging, 26,000 cubic meters of mining, as well as lab testing of about 70,000 of samples.
Kazakhstan’s copper export increases with the increase of copper manufacture. Thus, since the beginning of 2019 refined copper and copper alloy export increased by 6.7 percent. The profit decreased by 7.8 percent reaching $443.6 million. The major volume of copper worth $375.6 million was exported to China, Turkey and UAE.
Copper scrap and residue export, as well as copper wire export decreased by 89.2 percent and 41.1 percent respectively compared to the statistics of last year. The importer of copper scrap and residue is Russia. The profit of copper scrap and residue export, as well as copper wire export decreased by 81.3 percent and 28.2 percent respectively.