“Tau-Ken Samruk” has fully repaid its loan to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which was initially secured for the expansion of the Shalkiya zinc deposit in the Kyzylorda region. This information was disclosed in the mining holding’s consolidated report for 2024.
The financial document stated, “During 2024, the group received tranches from the EBRD amounting to $8,360 thousand USD, equivalent to 3,786,153 thousand tenge (2023: $35,424 thousand USD or an equivalent of 16,745,062 thousand tenge). On December 18, 2024, the agreement with the EBRD was terminated early, and the loan, including accrued interest, totaling $124,158 thousand USD, or an equivalent of 64,803,815 thousand tenge, was fully repaid. The interest paid for 2024 amounted to 4,549,341 thousand tenge (2023: 2,856,424 thousand tenge).”
It’s worth recalling that in September 2021, “Tau-Ken Samruk” updated the terms of its credit line with the EBRD for the development of the Shalkiya zinc deposit, reducing the amount to $175 million at a rate of LIBOR plus 2.5% per annum, with a transition to the alternative SOFR 6m + 2.5% rate scheduled for June 30, 2023.
The loan was guaranteed by “Samruk-Kazyna,” and additionally, a $2.9 million long-term deposit and the rights to funds in all monetary accounts of the mining holding’s subsidiary, “ShalkiyaZinc LTD,” were pledged to the international financial institution. The principal repayment of the credit line was initially planned in equal semi-annual installments from 2025 to 2032, and interest payments in equal six-month installments from December 2021 to December 2032.
Under the credit line, “Tau-Ken Samruk” received tranches of $35.4 million in 2023, $52.3 million in 2022, and the first transfer from the bank in 2021 amounted to $18.8 million. Throughout 2023, “Tau-Ken Samruk” paid the EBRD 2.9 billion tenge in interest. By the end of that year, the total amount of borrowed funds from the European bank reached 46 billion tenge, exceeding $100 million at the previous year’s exchange rate.
A year ago, inbusiness.kz reported that the mining holding had failed to meet covenants on the EBRD loan. According to the MFI’s website, the $175 million pre-privatization credit project has been implemented and completed. The European bank reportedly received no complaints regarding the project, as indicated on its project page. Overall, the loan was intended to finance the expansion of mining operations at the existing Shalkiya lead-zinc mine and the construction of a processing plant with a capacity of 4 million tons of ore per year. Incidentally, it was previously reported that Shalkiya might be privatized before the summer.
In late 2022, inbusiness.kz wrote that the Shalkiya processing plant was expected to be commissioned in November 2025. According to the company’s report on financial and economic activities for the past year, pilot industrial tests were conducted in 2024 to assess the feasibility of obtaining a collective concentrate under the conditions of the processing plant. This year’s plans include the development of technological regulations for this process, pilot industrial tests on the application of X-ray radiometric separation, optimization of capital expenditures for the construction of the processing plant, and a recalculation of reserves according to the KAZRC standard.
Furthermore, the financial report for 2024 notes that the launch of the Shalkiya plant and reaching its design capacity of 400,000 tons are planned for 2026, with the project expected to continue until 2047.
