Type of Minerals
Major Elements: Copper (Cu)
Associated Elements: Gold (Au).
Infrastructure and Description of the Area
Spassky copper ore zone is located in Karagandy region of Kazakhstan, reaching 330 km and a width of 30-40 km zone. The total area of the Spassky copper ore zone is 6 275 sq. km. Administratively, the working area is located on the territory of the Bukhar-Zhyrau, Abay, Karkaraly districts of Karagandy region. For the exploration operations, the deposit has excellent infrastructure and access to the labor force due to the proximity of the object to the regional center – Karagandy city. The presence of water and energy is also very beneficial and increases the possibility for project implementation. Major highways pass through the center of the object and there are a number of roads that can be used to access the most areas of the object.
The climate of the region is a zone of dry steppes and differs sharply continental. Summers are hot and dry with little precipitation; autumn is dry and frost; Spring is short (1-2) months with a fairly high rainfall; Winter lasts about 150 days, with persistent severe winds. The average annual temperature is +2.90; in summer it rises to +37 in winter drops to -40.
Brief Description
Spassky copper ore zones differ with copper metallogenic specialization and all its strike (330 km) from east to west on the conditional allocation of ore sites: Burnak, Koktas-Sharykty, Zhetymshoky, Spassky, Kyzylshoky-Koktas, Altyntobe, Hadzhikongan, Shokay-Nurkazgan Shaytandy, Koktas-Zhartas, Koktaszhal. Within these 8 ore clusters about 150 occurrences and mineralization points and eight deposits are defined (which is called a part of the ore nodes): Koktas-Sharykty, Zhetymshoky, Kyzylshoky, Altyntobe, Hadzhikongan, Nurkazgan, Shokay, Koktaszhal. In addition, outside of the ore clusters, but within the Spassky copper ore zone there located about 350 points of copper mineralization (sampling points with high copper content greater than 0.1%), which continuously trace the entire Spassky zone. Deposits Nurkazgan, Zhetymshoky, Koktaszhal, Kyzylshoky-Koktal ore field and Shoptykol because of not being free from subsoil use are excluded from this Project.
Reserves/Resources and Brief Description of Geology
The total predicted copper resources of the Spassky copper ore zone are estimated at category C2, P1 and P2 in the amount of 1439,000 tons, including:
Burnaksky ore cluster (mineralized faults in shear zones) – 66 thousand tons
Koktas-Sharyktinsky ore cluster (mineralized faults in shear zones) – 116 thousand tons
Altyntobin ore site (copper-hydrothermal-stratiform-thrusting) – 117 thousand tons
Hadjikongan ore site (mineralized faults in shear zones) – 120 thousand tons
Shaytandinsky ore site (mineralized faults in shear zones, honey-molybdenum porphyry) – 100 thousand tons
Koktas-Jhartas ore site (mineralized faults in shear zones) – 20 thousand tons
Shokai ore site (copper-molybdenum porphyry) – 500.0 thousand tons
Zhunbay ore site – 400 thousand tons
In addition, an epithermal gold-silver deposit is expected to be identified, with projected resources for cat. P3 10-15t of gold and silver 100-150t.
Current Status and Summary of Planned Activities
In the western part, geological exploration works are concentrated on the following sites: Koktas-Sharykty, Shakhtnoye, Western Khadzhikongan, Shokai, Terekty, Sheshenkara, UrtynzhalSeverny, Datsitovy, Zhamanzhol, Tasshoky, Saryadyr, Kuldzhumurskaya structure, Koyankara, Zhalair, Yegizkara, Altyntyube, Karasu, Koktal, Shokar, Levoberezhnoye, Spassk, Suran, Karabasan.
In the Eastern part, geological exploration works are carried out at the following sites: Koktas-Zhartas, Akylbekovskaya group of ore occurrences, Dalneye, Bezymyanny, Bereken, Shaitandy, Zvezdnoye, Zhosaly central, NewZhosaly, Zhubai, Kyzylkismet, Ushkatyn and KoyandyVostochny.
The list of works includes geophysical studies: magnetic and electric exploration (the latter are carried out by the method of induced polarization in the modification of profile soundings by the dipole-dipole and AMT system), lithochemical survey, search routes, mining operations (with ditch digging), core drilling with sampling and laboratory- analytical researches.
In the future, it is planned to place several deposits of the Spassky copper ore zone on the balance sheet of the SRC RK.
Additional Information and Notes
Project management is carried out by subsidiary of Joint-stock company «Tau-Ken Samruk» National Mining Company» – Limited Liability Partnership «Joint Venture «Tau-Ken Project» .