The Kounrad open pit copper mine is located in the Balkhash metallogenic belt within the BalkhashJunggar orogenic belt of the Central Asian Metallogenic Domain (“CAMD”). The geology encompassing the deposit comprises porphyry copper mineralisation related to tectono-magmatism during the Devonian and Carboniferous-Permian volcano-magmatic arcs.

Site geology consists of unconsolidated sediments and granitic bedrock units. Sediments range from gravels, to sand and silts with some units being reported as ‘‘cemented’’ sediments. Bedrock ranges from granite to granodiorite. Highly weathered at the surface, the bedrock grades to competent rock within 10-40m from the surface.

Weathering and supergene enrichment have produced a general zonation of the mineralisation in the deposit:
- Oxidised cap - characterised by hematite, limonite, manganese oxyhydroxide, malachite, azurite, cuprite, native copper, chrysocolla mineralisation;
- Leached zone - characterised by moderate oxidation in the upper part and destabilisation of sulphide minerals under acidic conditions in the lower parts;
- Supergene blanket - characterised by chalcocite and covellite mineralisation; and
- Primary sulphide zone - characterised by disseminated and stockwork ore with pyrite, chalcopyrite, enargite and chalcocite mineralisation.

All of these mineralised phases, to a greater or lesser extent, are reflected in the composition of the waste dumps.

Copper is produced by leaching the metal from waste dumps that were formed from years of historic mining. This process is far less cost intensive than traditional mining, as there is no need to drill, blast or transport ore – the waste dump rocks can be leached in-situ. This allows us to produce copper cheaply and efficiently.

The plant began producing copper from the Eastern Dumps in late April 2012 but, in 2017, this has been supplemented by new production from the much larger Western Dumps.

The process we use to produce copper is called Solvent Extraction and Electrowinning (SX-EW). SX-EW is a two-stage hydrometallurgical process that first extracts and upgrades acid-soluble copper from low-grade waste dumps, using dilute sulphuric acid, followed by extraction and upgrading of the leached copper solutions into an organic solvent mix containing a chemical that selectively reacts with and removes the copper. The copper is then extracted from the organic solvent u ........