Kazakhmys

Kazakhmys is a natural resources company specializing in copper, gold, zinc, silver, power generation, and petroleum. It is a copper producer in Kazakhstan and runs worldwide with seventeen operating mines, ten concentrators, and two copper smelters. The company's copper operations are integrated, from mining ore to the production of completed copper cathodes, wires, and rods.

Kazakhmys runs three coal-fired power and heating plants at Karaganda, Balkhash, and Zhezkazgan. In 2010, the overall copper cathode equivalent produced from the company's ore was 303 thousand tons. Kazakhmys produces other metals, like zinc, silver, and gold. In 2010, the company produced 167 thousand tons of zinc in concentrate. On February 26, 2010, Kazakhmys sold a 50 percent interest in Ekibastuz GRES-1 to Samruk-Kazyna, and the company retained a 50 percent interest.

Kazakhmys operates in the field of natural resources, mining, extraction, and processing. The company has three industrial sites, plants, factories, and mines located in Balkhash, Zhezkazgan, and Karaganda. Officially, Kazakhmys was established in 1997, although its mining dates back to 1913, when the operations in Zhezkasgan started.

On August 15, 2014, the company's shareholders voted to approve a restructuring of the group, and the details were set out in a Circular in July 2014. Outstanding conditions for the restructuring of the group were complete on October 31, 2014, with economic separation of the Disposal Assets effective from August 1, 2014.

The restructuring of mature assets in the Zhezkazgan and Central Regions were transferred to Cuprum Holding, a private company owned by Vladimir Kim and Eduard Ogay. The name Kazakhmys Corporation was retained.

In 2022, Kazakhmys Corporation LLC opted to invest in Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions’ wheeled UJ300 crushing unit for underground copper mining operations. The company put five of the mobile jaw crushers into operation, with extra units on order.

A representative of Sandvik stated,

“Kazakhmys was looking for a reliable partner to supply equipment for their underground operation. Key considerations which needed to be taken into account were electrical operation for low operating costs and reduced emissions, high capacity and the ability to be able to transport the equipment and fit it down the mine shaft.”

Kazakhmys owns the Aktogay open-pit copper mine. The copper company is located in the eastern region of Kazakhstan, about 250km from the border with China. The project includes an open-pit mine and an on-site concentrator to make copper cathode from oxide ore and copper concentrate from sulphide ore. Additionally, Molybdenum is made as a by-product.

In December 2012, approval for the copper project was issued by the board of Kazakhmys, and construction started in 2013. The Aktogay mining operation started oxide copper cathode production in December 2015, and sulphide copper concentrate production began in February 2017.

Commercial production from the concentrator was achieved in October 2017. The $2 billion copper project is expected to have a twenty-eight-year mine life. In December 2017, a $1.2 billion expansion was approved for the mine to increase sulphide ore processing capacity from 25Mt to 50Mt. The expansion project commenced production in the second half of 2021 and is expected to increase copper production from sulphide ore to 170,000t between 2022 and 2027 and to 130,000t thereafter.

Kazakhmys launched a twenty-year plan to invest in the modernization of its mines and construct others to boost output. As part of the plan, the total amount of investments in fixed assets in the period up to 2040 will be about $6.5 billion. The company also plans to replenish the mineral resource base to run an annual ore production of 35 million tonnes. Its Hadzhikongan mine is expected to reach its design capacity of 0.9 million tonnes in 2023.

Mining and capital works were undertaken to excavate workings to open the deposit. At the mine, ore mining started in the fourth quarter of 2022. It is expected to reach design capacity of 0.6 million tonnes in 2024. There are plans to modernize the Nurkazgan mine and the processing plant within five years. Specifically, shafts and another section of the factory will be built, and mining and preparatory work will be carried out in the mine's eastern section. The mine will reach a production capacity of 6.5 million tonnes in 2027.

Deposits will be put into operation at the Zhylandinsky mine, increasing the overall production volume to 8 million tonnes in 2038. To process ore, a processing plant is being constructed at the Shatyrkul-Zhaisan cluster in the Balkhash region. The release is scheduled for 2025, and the capacity of the factory will be 1.5 million tonnes.

For the Zhezkazgan region, a feasibility study is underway, with options for modernizing the concentration plant or building another. The company also resumed the work of the Konyrat mine in the Balkhash region. The mine produces 1.9 million tonnes.

Andrey Gaidin, Deputy Chairman of Kazakhmys Board, stated,

“We plan to exceed all projected indicators this year. The main driver of copper demand growth will be the global transition to a green economy, which means a choice in favour of using renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.”