Kazakhmys Corporation has announced plans to resume development of the Konyrat mine in 2026. The company aims to annually extract 6 million tons of ore. According to an 18-year development plan, the ore reserves are estimated at 94.6 million tons and 325,800 tons of copper with an average copper content of 0.34%, reports Kursiv citing company data.
The development will run from 2026 to 2043. Kazakhmys expects to reach the projected annual output of 6 million tons of ore by 2029 and maintain this level until 2041. The ore will be processed at the Balkhash Concentrator.
Currently, the mine is idle, with 2.8 million cubic meters of wastewater accumulated at a depth of 287.5 meters. Water diversion is planned for further development. Once mining activities resume, the mine water will be used in the concentrator’s production processes.
Kazakhmys began developing the Konyrat copper mine in 2014. Ore extraction was halted in 2016 due to a sharp decline in metal prices but resumed in July 2017. Mining activities stopped again in 2020. In 2021, the contractor Karaganda Mining and Construction Enterprise LLP took over the project. The development plan was revised, setting a 24-year extraction target of 127 million tons of ore and 423,900 tons of copper with an average copper content of 0.33%. In 2022-2023, water at the bottom of the mine allowed work only to a depth of 290 meters.
Recently, Kazakhmys has been offered an efficient waste processing technology. This will enable the production of 3,000 tons of cathode copper annually over the next nine years.
