Overview

Mine Type	Underground
Status	Active
Commodities	Iron Ore
Mining Method	Sub-level caving
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The Atasu Iron Mine is a part of Orken's LLP Iron Ore Department. It operates the West Karazhal deposit and includes a processing plant. The Atasu mine includes reserves of iron ore and ferromanganese ore. The development of the second mine (now mothballed), as well as the modernization of production at the enterprise as a whole will be one of Qarmet’s priorities.

Deposit type

• Skarn

Summary:

The Atasu mine is located near the town of Karajan in the Atasu district. The mine deposit is a skarn. The ore is composed by 25% Hematite and 75% Magnetite.

The Atasu mine is hosted by the West Karazhal deposit, which is a primary hematite ore with associated manganese mineralization. Studies have indicated that the deposit could have a sedimentary-volcanogenic origin caused by underwater hydrothermal activity.

The analogous bedding of sedimentary breccias is typical of the Karazhal deposits in Central Kazakhstan and probably of other manganese bearing regions as well.

The deposit is located within the wing of the Zhailma trough and extends from west to east for 5500 m with a southern dip at an angle of 350. The ore deposit that makes up the deposit is a consistent mineralization in the form of layers of iron and manganese ores with a thickness of iron ores (2.0 - 20.6m), manganese ores (2-8m) with blow-ups up to 30m. The ore deposit has been traced to a depth of up to 1720m, dipping to the west at an angle of (10-150).

The deposit is conditionally divided into three mine fields: I - 64m, II - 46m, III - 24m. The total thickness of the ore strata averages 44 m.

According to the mineralogical composition, the iron ores of the Western Karazhal deposit are a mixture of the main ore minerals hematite and magnetite with a variable amount of quartz and calcite. Minor minerals are siderite, ferruginous chlorites, stilpnomelane, and pyrite.

According to the predominance of iron minerals, hematite, magnetite-hematite and magnetite natural types of ores are distinguished. According to the predominance of the main ore minerals, brownite, hausmanite, jacobsite and hematite-brownite ores are distinguished among manganese ores.

The average content of the main chemical components (iron and manganese) in the balance ores of the Western Karazhal is respectively: iron ores - 51.06 and 1.03%; manganese ores - 9.28 and 20.04%.

In both iron and manganese ores, the content of such harmful components as arsenic and phosphorus pentoxide is low (0.01–0.02% and 0.04–0.09%, respectively). The basicity coefficient of iron ores is low (0.14 - 0.18), therefore, in the metallurgical processing, iron ores require fluxing.

The sulfur content in manganese ores is low - 0.05–0.06%, arsenic - 0.01–0.02%. Relatively increased content of lead (up to 1.92%) and zinc (up to 0.68%).

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Commodity	Units	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
Iron Ore	Mt	....	....	....	....	....	0.9	0.8	1	0.8	0.9

Operational metrics

Metrics	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
Ore tonnes mined	....	....	....	....	1.7 Mt
Annual ore mining capacity	....	....	....	....	2,200 kt	2,200 kt	2,200 kt

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Jun 21, 2024
.......................	.......................		Jun 21, 2024

Total Workforce	Year
......	2023
......	2020