Copper cathode manufacturing plant in Karagandy region has reached its full production capacity

Kazak TV reported that industrial innovative development in Kazakhstan is underway. A copper cathode manufacturing plant in the Karagandy region has reached its full production capacity. Raw materials that were previously considered unprofitable were used with new technologies. Currently, the facility produces up to 9,000 tonnes of copper cathode per year. All of the products are exported. The copper export contract was signed with a transnational company that is a leader in the world’s largest metal suppliers’ list. There are 27 million tonnes of approved reserves. We are currently working on them. There is also an approved project. Exploration is planned for the next year in order to increase the reserves which will then raise production volumes. The plant was built on the ‘Almaly’ deposit. It produces approximately 10,000 tonnes of ore per day. Innovative technologies are used in order to increase the economic efficiency of the field. The exploitation of unconventional raw materials and poor ore are allowed. Experts say that a closed cycle of metallurgical processing eliminates the storage of tailings and reduces environmental pollution. A number of cleaning systems are used in the production as well as protection against possible leakages of chemical reagents or solutions. The company has its own laboratory, which is considered as the brain of the facility. The metal content in the ore is determined in the lab. Geologists chose the type of raw materials to be used for production based on the analysis results. The control of the technological process also depends on laboratory research as it would affect the quality of finished products. Technologists can’t work blindly. They need to know what the acid content is and what the metal content is in solutions. The laboratory provides information for technologists particularly on how to customize the process and how to regulate it in order to get the maximum benefit. The production process at the factory is fully automated. Equipment was imported from Finland, the United Kingdom, Italy and Israel. The cost of the project implementation is estimated at 14 billion Tenge.