Mining Intelligence and News
Kazakhstan

East Region (Kazakhstan) Complex

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Summary

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Copper
  • Zinc
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Lead
Mining Method
  • Room-and-pillar
  • Shrinkage stoping
  • Blast Hole Stoping
  • Sub-level caving
  • Cut & Fill
  • Drift & Fill
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Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe East Region Complex includes three polymetallic underground mines: Orlovsky, Artemyevsky, and Irtyshsky. The ore from these mines is processed at the Orlovsky and Nikolayevsky concentrators.

In September 2024, KAZ Minerals announced the extension of operations at Artemyevsky until 2034. While this is an expansion project, its scale and complexity are comparable to developing a new mine.
Related AssetsArtemyevsky Mine, Irtyshsky Mine, Orlovsky Mine

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Nova Resources B.V. 100 % Indirect
Vostoktsvetmet LLC (operator) 100 % Direct
KAZ Minerals has been wholly acquired by Nova Resources BV to support the Company’s pursuit of a capital-intensive strategy focused on long-term growth.

KAZ Minerals International DMCC operates three underground mines and associated concentrators in the East Region of Kazakhstan.

Vostoktsvetmet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KAZ Minerals.

Deposit type

  • VMS

Summary:

Most of the deposits of the East Region are of the volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS): Orlovsky, Artemyevsky, Irtyshsky underground mines.

Orlovsky
Orlovsky is an active underground mine exploiting a large, polymetallic, high grade, and gold rich VMS deposit. It comprises the Main Orebody, which comprises an upper and lower part with an irregular pod-like shape, 20° to 30° dip to the SW, average thickness of 35m and down-dip extent of 600 m. It is now almost worked out, with the remaining resources consisting of remnant blocks distributed in the lower part of the orebody and representing some 25% of the whole deposit. A 0.85 Mt oxidised cap on the upper part of the orebody has been excluded from the resources since until now, no technology has been successfully developed to treat it.

350 m to the SW of the lower part of the Main Orebody is the New Orebody comprising a southern portion with a 10° to 15° dip to the SW and thickness of up to 56m and a northern portion with very high grade and thickness of 5-20 m. The combined New Orebody occupies a surface area in long section of some 250 m by 150 m and accounts for the rest of the resources in the deposit.

Artemyevsky
Artemyevsky is an operating underground mine exploiting a larg, high grade, polymetallic, gold and silver-rich VMS deposit. A number of different steeply dipping ore bodies have been identified in the deposit, the most important of which is the Main Orebody, with a strike length of 1,300 m and maximum thickness of 200 m. This is the sole source of ore at the present time, with working on the 7, 8, 9 and 10 Levels. The higher-grade but less continuous Talovskaya Orebody is located 50-150 m in the footwall of the main Orebody, while the Kamishinskaya orebody forms a protective pillar below an old open pit and to protect the underground workings from flooding.

There are further six orebodies that form series sub-parallel lenses gently pitching to the east of the Main and Talovskaya orebodies.

The ore shows a vertical gradation through the individual bodies of polymetallic ores at the top, barite/polymetallic ores, polymetallic ores, copper/zinc ores and copper ores at the base. There are copper rich mineralised zones below these orebodies within the footwall volcanics of the Tavolka formation.

Irtyshsky
Irtyshsky is an operating underground mine exploiting a polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit of average size and grade. The mineralisation is of lenses with extensive strike extents but more limited down-dip persistence. There are three principal ore bodies: Main, South East, No 2.

Irtyshsky Principal Orebodies:
Main:
- Orebody Strike length - 2,500 m;
- Down-dip length - 750 m;
- Thickness - 3.5 m.
South East:
- Orebody Strike length - 3,000 m;
- Down-dip length - 400 m;
- Thickness - 2.7 m.
No 2:
- Orebody Strike length - 1,600 m;
- Down-dip length - 300 m;
- Thickness - 1.35 m.

The orebodies pitch slightly to the NW with their long axes roughly parallel. The average strike of the Irtyshsky ore body is NW-SE and the dip of the ore body is steep to sub- vertical (70-80°). The ore body is gently folded with secondary thickening of the ore lenses in the fold axes. The copper and zinc grades increase with increasing depth from surface.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Commodity Production

CommodityProductUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Copper Payable metal kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe485460
Copper Metal in concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Zinc Metal in concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe385058
Gold Payable metal koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe131518
Silver Payable metal koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe1,7612,1142,300
Copper Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe254294308

Operational metrics

Metrics2023202220212020201920182017
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe0.1 Mt
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe2,767 kt3,028 kt3,163 kt
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
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Workforce

Aerial view:

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