Research and Development (R&D) on developing and testing of heap leaching technology for poor tungsten ores of Verkhneye Kairaktinskoye deposit in Karaganda region.
Brief description: R&D is aimed at developing and testing the technology of heap leaching of off-balance ore from Verkhneye Kairaktinskoye deposit in order to improve the economic performance of the deposit development project, expand tungsten (W) and bismuth (Bi) reserves, and improve the integrated use of the resources of the deposit. It is planned to conduct a 2-stage testing of technology in a closed cycle using sorption methods of extraction of valuable components and membrane technologies for wastewater utilization with the issuance of technical regulations for design and obtaining 2 patents of the Republic of Kazakhstan for inventions. The obtained results will be used to calculate the feasibility study for the deposit development.
Relevance: Verkhneye Kairaktinskoye tungsten-bismuth deposit is one of the three largest undeveloped tungsten deposits in the world. The resources of the deposit make it possible to build a world-scale tungsten complex on its basis, which will make a significant contribution to sustainable economic growth in Central Kazakhstan and the employment of the local population, as well as to increasing sustainable supplies of strategically important raw materials to foreign markets. At the same time, the development of mineral resources should meet the objectives of the rational integrated use of mineral and water resources avoiding harmful impact on the ecosystem.
At present, only a part of geological resources of the deposit with the content of more than 0.1% WO3 can be processed using traditional methods.
Metallurgical processing of tungsten concentrate is characterized by formation of a large amount of environmentally harmful solid and liquid wastes requiring special storage measures.
A significant share of resources is classified as poor and off-balance ores and will be stocked which increases ore mining costs and worsens economic indicators of the deposit development project, and as a result it is difficult to ensure rational use of subsoil and environmental safety of metallurgical production during the deposit development using traditional methods, while mining and processing of only ordinary and rich ores using traditional methods is characterized by high sensitivity to changes in world prices for tungsten products.
Application of geotechnological methods of processing poor and off-balance reserves of the deposit could help to solve these problems. However, the best practices of tungsten ore processing have no cases of their application. Therefore, the development of heap leaching technology is extremely relevant for the development of the deposit and meets the Company’s sustainable development goals.
R&D implementation term: 2025