BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 7. Kazakhmys, a private Kazakh-owned mining company with headquarters in London, invests around 2 trillion Kazakh tenge ($4.36 billion) in two projects in the eastern part of the country, Trend reports, citing Kazakh media.
The company invested the above-mentioned sum into the development of Koksay and Aidarly ore deposits.
Given the low copper content, it is planned to build a mining and processing plant with a capacity of 50 million tons of ore per year to develop the deposit. The project is forecasted to be complete in 2026 and will provide employment to 1,300 people. The expected cost of the project is 976 billion Kazakh tenge ($2.12 billion), and the estimated completion time is 2026.
The estimated operating resources of the Koksay deposit are 823.7 million tons of ore, including 3.5 million tons of copper with an average grade of 0.42 percent, 63.7 tons of gold, and 865 tons of silver.
The same project will be carried out at the Aidarly ore deposit. The output is also expected to be around 50 million tons of ore per annum, the cost, however, will amount to 1.08 trillion Kazakh tenge ($2.36 billion). The facility is planned to be commissioned in 2027.
According to preliminary estimates, the reserves of the Aydarly deposit amount to about 1.53 billion tons of ore, including 5.87 million tons of copper with an average grade of 0.38 percent, 14.1 tons of gold, and 2,168 tons of silver.
Implementation of investment projects at the Koksay and Aidarly fields is of national importance. Their completion will contribute to the socio-economic development of the Zhetysu region and the Abay region, as well as the welfare growth of the population of these regions. According to preliminary estimates, over the entire period of project implementation, the total tax payments from enterprises to the budgets of all levels will exceed 3.3 trillion Kazakh tenge ($7.23 billion).
Kazakhmys is a vertically integrated holding company with key assets concentrated in mining and non-ferrous metallurgy. «Kazakhmys» is the world's 20th largest producer of copper in concentrate (271 thousand tons) and the 12th largest producer of blister and cathode copper (377 and 365 thousand tons, respectively, including tolling).