JSC NMC Tau-Ken Samruk, the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed the “Statement of Intent on Technical Support for Raw Materials Projects”.
According to the document signed during the participation in the Week of Raw Materials in Brussels, the EU and the EBRD will allocate a grant for €400,000 for research work on two projects: the extraction of lithium from the salt marshes of the Aral Sea and development of the Verkhneye Kairakty tungsten deposit.
The planned lithium works include, among other things, identification of promising sites, soil sampling, selection of optimal research methods and analytical interpretation of the samples obtained. Domestic specialists and research centers will be involved in the implementation of the project.
Lithium is a highly demanded metal in high-tech spheres, more than half of all lithium mined in the world is used in the production of batteries and accumulators. Lithium extraction from salt marshes can make Kazakhstan one of the main participants in the supply chain of a strategically important resource.
The main objective of the enlarged laboratory tests for the tungsten project is to increase the percentage of tungsten extraction from off-balance ores. This will increase significantly the economic attractiveness of the development of the Verkhneye Kairakty field. At the same time, circulating water use should be introduced into the technological process of pre-enrichment of off-balance reserves, especially important for Kazakhstan, which is experiencing a shortage of water resources.