Name: Inkai mine.

Location: Inkai is located in the Suzak district of South Kazakhstan Oblast, near the town of Taikonur, Kazakhstan.

Holding and Controlling Company: The mine is operated by joint venture (JV) Inkai limited liability partnership that is owned by Cameco (60%) and the Kazakh government through Kazatomprom (40%). 

Brief Description: Inkai is an in situ recovery (ISR) producing mine, comprising two production areas – Block 1 (16.6 km²) and Block 2 (230 km²) – and an exploration area Block 3 (240 km²).

JV Inkai is licensed to produce 5.2-million pounds of uranium (U₃O₈) a year. The project has an estimated 13-year mine life.

Brief History: The Inkai deposit was discovered during drilling campaigns conducted from 1976 to 1978 by Volkovskaya Expedition. By that time, prospecting and exploration programmes had also resulted in the identification of the Uvanas, Zhalpak, Kanzhugan and Mynkuduk deposits. Together with the Inkai deposit, they formed a large new uranium mineralisation prospect in the Shu-Sarysu depression.

A pilot test using the ISR mining method was performed in the north-east area of Block 1 starting in December 1988. The pilot leach test in the north area of Block 2 was initiated in 2002. JV Inkai decided to proceed with the main processing plant – to be located at Block 1 – in September 2005, and construction began soon after.

Commissioning of the front half of the main processing plant was completed during the fourth quarter of 2008, and the processing of solutions from Block 1 started. Construction of the main processing plant was completed in 2009. In February 2010, regulatory approval to commission the main processing plant was received, allowing for full processing of uranium concentrate on site. Also in 2009, JV Inkai built and started commissioning a satellite plant to process solution recovered from Block 2.

JV Inkai received regulatory approval for processing at the first satellite plant in 2011.

In 2010 planning also began for the engineering and construction of a test leach facility at Block 3. JV Inkai completed construction of the Block 3 TLF in 2015 and began pilot production from test wellfields.

Products: Uranium concentrate.

Geology/Mineralisation: The stratigraphic sequence at Inkai ranges from Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments.

Neogene-Quaternary sediments of continental origin form the uppermost cover and do not host significant uranium occurrences. These are underlain by 100 m to 150 m of Palaeogene clay-dominated marine sediments. Elsewhere in the basin, the sediments display a lower facies transition zone of brackish sediments that host the uranium deposits of Tortkuduk and of the Taukent area (Kanzhugan and Moynkum).

The underlying upper Cretaceous strata are divided from youngest to oldest into three horizons – Zhalpak, Inkuduk and Mynkuduk.

Reserves: Inkai’s mineral reserves reported by Cameco are located at Blocks 1 and 2. Total proven and probable reserves as December 31, 2017, were estimated at 63.91-million tonnes grading 0.057% U₃O₈.

Resources: Inkai’s mineral resources reported by Cameco are located at Blocks 1 and 2. Total measured resources as at December 31, 2016, were estimated 34.86-million grading 0.07% U₃O₈. Indicated resources were estimated at 77.91-million tonnes grading 0.05% U₃O₈. Inferred resources were estimated 151.58-million tonnes grading 0.05% U₃O₈.

Mining Method: Conventional in situ recovery.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Block 1 features the main processing plant; administrative engineering and construction offices, shops and a garage; holding ponds and reagent storage tanks; waste disposal enclosures for low-level radioactive and domestic waste; a laboratory and emergency response building; a canteen; roads and power lines; wellfield pipelines and header houses.

Block 2 hosts a satellite processing plant; an office and shops; holding ponds and reagent storage tanks; a canteen; roads and power lines; wellfield pipelines and header houses.

Block 3 comprises a test leach facility; an office and shops; holding ponds and reagent storage tanks; a canteen; roads and power lines; wellfield pipelines and header houses.

Prospects: Exploration work on Block 3 has identified extensive mineralisation hosted by several horizons and traced along 25 km. This discovery requires further assessment of its commercial viability.

Contact: Investor relations marketing manager Laurie Thomas.

Contact Details:
Cameco
Tel +1 306 956 6340
Fax +1 306 956 6318
Website https://www.cameco.com