KAZ Minerals company reduced the cost of the expected Aktogay copper mine project in Kazakhstan by $100 million to $2.2 billion, the company reported.
“The project has benefited from the experience gained at Bozshakol mine project and from the use of local contractors following the 2015 tenge devaluation”, the company’s message said.
The lowered budget for the project results in revised capital expenditure guidance for 2016 of $230 million and 2017 of $350 million.
The final payment of $300 million to the project’s principal construction contractor remains deferred to 2018, after the project is completed.
The Aktogay project in the East of Kazakhstan is the group’s second copper mining asset under construction. Aktogay commenced production of copper cathode from oxide ore in December 2015, and the production of copper in concentrate from sulfide ore is expected to begin in 2017.
The sulfide concentrator will have an annual ore processing capacity of 25 million tons when fully ramped up.
The deposit has a mine life of more than 50 years with average copper grades of 0.33% (sulfide) and 0.37% (oxide). Aktogay is competitively positioned on the global cost curve and will produce an average of 90,000 tons of copper cathode equivalent from sulfide ore and 15,000 tons of copper cathode from oxide ore per year over the first 10 years of operations.
KAZ Minerals is a high-growth copper company focused on large scale, low cost, open pit mining in Kazakhstan.
It operates four mines and three concentrators in the East Region of Kazakhstan, the Bozymchak copper-gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, the Bozshakol open pit copper mine in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan and the oxide phase of the Aktogay project. (Trend/Ukrainian metal)