The Republic of Kazakhstan’s Eastern Research Mining and Metallurgical Institute of Nonferrous Metals has developed methods for obtaining copper concentrates from the Borly deposit. The institute, also known as VNIITsvetmet, received an order from the Iranian company Irkaz Metal Corp, with whom they have been working for 10 years. In November 2022, Irkaz opened a hydrometallurgical plant in the Karaganda region to produce cathode copper, using raw materials from the Borly site. VNIITsvetmet also created the technological regulations for the design of a heap leaching site for oxidized ores at Borla, when the deposit’s reserves were still being estimated. The institute’s employees had to find a solution for processing oxidized ores with an average copper content of 0.35%. The institute claims to have developed the most suitable enrichment schemes for manufacturers, resulting in the plant receiving a concentrate with the maximum allowable extraction level. The proposed solutions have already been implemented at the enterprise and the plant’s annual capacity is expected to be around 5,000 tons of cathode copper.
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