Type of Minerals
Major Elements: Tungsten (W)
Associated Elements: Molibdenum (Mo)
Infrastructure and Description of the Area
Upper Kairakty mine is located in Shet district of Karagandy region, 35 km from the railway station Jaryk. The deposit is located in a favorable geographical and economic conditions in the vicinity of transport and energy communications. 130 km to the north of the deposit there is a major regional and industrial center – Karagandy city. From the deposit to Agadyr village, located 65 km south-west of a road are 6 km of technological road and 59 km asphalted road. From the deposit Upper Kairakty to Northern Katpar deposit the dumping paintings made by the railroad with bridges and drainages length of about 42 km. In the vicinity of the open-pit the administrative building is located (parts of administrative buildings are remained) .In Upper Kairakty village there are incomplete construction of apartment buildings (the boxes). The nearest fuel and energy base is the Karagandy coal basin (160 km). In 200 km northwest distance the Shubarkul coal deposit is being developed, which can provide all enterprises of the district. External energy supply of the future may be provided by transmission lines – 500 kV «Balkhash-Karagandy» or «Pavlodar-Central Asia» from the substation of the enterprise Agadyr. Water supply is carried out by groundwater Jaman-Sarysu and Zhaksy-Sarysu deposits with approved reserves of 130 thousand m3/day, Aktasty reservoir and the channel Irtysh-Karaganda-Zhezkazgan.
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, 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 t drops to -40.
Brief Description of the Geology
According to the gravity survey, the deposit is located in the zone of the granite massif on-intrusive size 17×5 km from the upper limit of 2.2 km and the lower 6-7 km. Industrial ore bodies are confined to the stockwork, formed by a series of steeply dipping quartz veins and veinlets, lying deep in the altered sedimentary rocks. General outline of the stockwork zone is 10X18 km and rare-metal productive part covers an area of 2300 m2. Tungsten mineralization is developed from the surface to a depth of 750-800 m. The molybdenum mineralization tends to lower horizons. According to geological conditions of the mine development, the deposit is related to the group of average complexity. The mineral composition of primary ore is very diverse and includes such main ore minerals such as scheelite, wolframite, molybdenite, bismuthine, pyrite, chalcopyrite, native bismuth and others. A special feature is the predominance of scheelite (over 80%)..
Reserves/Resources
The volume of resources according to JORC standards of the Measured+Indicated+Inferred category is 683.7 million tons of tungsten ore (712 thousand tons of tungsten trioxide in ore). The Upper Kayrakty is included in the list of deposits of strategic importance.
Current Status
2016 – receiving a contract for subsurface use.
2018-2020 – completion of the complex of geological exploration works.
2019 – development of a report on mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code; research work on X-ray radiometric, X-ray luminescent and X-ray adsorption methods of ore pre-enrichment; re-assessment of the reserves of the Mashuransky groundwater deposit.
2020 – completion of work on technological tests for flotation; completion of research work on heap leaching of poor ores and industrial products of pre-enrichment; completion of work on hydrogeological studies; development of an exploration Plan
2021 –development of the reports of the feasibility study of industrial conditions with the calculation of reserves with the approval of the SCM of the Republic of Kazakhstan; signing a contract for research and development with the development of technological regulations for the construction of the CP and MMP; signing a contract for the work on determining the geomechanical justifications of the parameters of the management of the mountain range during the development of the deposit.
In 2022, work is planned for development of a preliminary feasibility study/feasibility study.
Additional information and notes
The Project operator is Severniy Katpar LLP, a subsidiary of JSC NMC Tau-Ken Samruk.
