BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 17. Finnish Metso Outotec will process waste from the tailing pond at the Kumtor gold mine in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports with reference to a press service of the Kumtor Gold Company.
According to Kumtor, Metso Outotec was chosen as a result of a competition to identify the most suitable company to determine the mineral composition of the waste and what processing technology is suitable for this purpose. The participants were dozens of companies from 22 countries, including South Africa, Canada, the US, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
As the press service said, the Kumtor tailing pond has accumulated 150 million tons of waste over the mine’s 27-year history.
Earlier, Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Japarov emphasized the need to expedite the waste processing project in Kumtor, which is expected to have a positive impact on the economy while also neutralizing the toxic substances in the tailing pond.
Meanwhile, according to the Head of Kumtor Gold, Almaz Baryktabasov, a total of 17.3 tons of gold was produced in the Kumtor gold mine in 2022, which is one of the largest gold deposits in the world.
Metso Outotec is a Finnish company that provides technologies and services to improve raw materials and energy efficiency in more than 45 countries worldwide.