JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Aktogay mine in the East Region of Kazakhstan is set for a $1.2-billion expansion to double sulphide ore processing capacity by 2021.
The expansion project, approved by the board of KAZ Minerals in December, entails building a second sulphide concentrator at Aktogay, increasing processing capacity from 25-million tonnes a year to 50-million tonnes a year.
The second contractor will add about 80 000 t/y of copper production, increasing the mine’s output from sulphide ore to 170 000 t/y from 2022 to 2027, and 130 000 t/y thereafter.
Owing to higher processing volumes the life of the sulphide orebody will reduce from 50 years to about 28 years.
Copper cathode production from oxide ore at Aktogay will be unchanged at the current level of about 20 000 t/y for the remaining eight year life of the oxide deposit.
At the time of announcing the project in December, KAZ Minerals said that the expansion represented a low risk growth project, being a duplicate of the sulphide processing facilities successfully commissioned at Bozshakol and Aktogay.