Central Asia Metals has marked 10 years’ production at its Kounrad dump leach, solvent extraction and electro-winning copper recovery plant in Kazakhstan.
KOUNRAD
The company reached the milestone on 30 April 2022 and expects to produce copper at its 100% owned project until 2034.
Kounrad’s copper resources are waste dumps formed during prior mining activities which began during the 1930s.
The company added that since it began leaching operations in April 2012, its achievements have included:
– production of 127,165 tonnes of copper cathode (to 31 March 2022) at an average C1 cash cost of production very low by industry standards at $0.55 per pound (2012 – 2021)
– gross revenue of $820.7 million from copper sales (2012 – 2021)
– tax paid to the Government of Kazakhstan totals $192.9m (2012 – 2021)
– the Kazakh workforce comprises 323 employees and 92 contractors (2021)
– the establishment of the Kounrad Foundation charity in 2018
– development funding of more than $2.3m to support local communities of Kounrad and Balkhash (2012 – 2021).
ENERGY TRANSITION
“It is important to highlight that this volume of copper, a metal critical to the green energy transition and urbanisation, has been recovered from what is essentially a waste material at costs that have consistently been amongst the lowest in the world,” said chief executive Nigel Robinson.
“We look forward to the next 10 years at Kounrad, which will see our operation continue to offer local employment and facilitate socio-economic progress in the surrounding communities.
“In the near future, we hope to enhance our operations by constructing a solar power plant at Kounrad and, having completed a scoping study and received board approval for building this project last year, we are now in the process of detailed engineering design.”
Central Asia Metals’ other 100% owned project is the Sasa zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.