The flotation section of Donskoy GOK, part of the Kazchrome company under ERG, has successfully reached 97% of its design capacity. This achievement is attributed to the implementation of a new technology that allows the recovery of chrome previously lost in waste during ore processing. The project, which is part of ERG’s Green programme, has seen investments exceeding 20 billion tenge, and efforts are ongoing to enhance the process to achieve full capacity.
For nearly 90 years, Donskoy GOK has accumulated significant waste containing valuable chrome, which can now be reintroduced into production. The ERG Green programme aims to develop technological solutions that gradually extract this valuable component from accumulated waste. The first phase of this initiative was the launch of a gravity plant in 2023, which enabled the extraction of chrome from larger particles. However, even after this, fine particles containing chrome remained in the waste, necessitating the next stage of the project: flotation.
The flotation section was launched in September 2025, specifically designed to extract chrome from the smallest particles that could not be efficiently processed in the previous phase. This innovative technology separates the valuable component from unwanted material, converting it into flotation concentrate, which serves as additional raw material for further production.
The two phases of the ERG Green programme complement each other, with the gravity plant focusing on larger particles and flotation targeting the finer ones. The application of flotation in the chrome industry posed a technological challenge, as this method is typically used for enriching ores of non-ferrous and precious metals. ERG’s Scientific Research and Engineering Centre developed and patented a solution tailored to the specific properties of chrome-containing materials.
Following the commissioning of the flotation section, the Donskoy GOK team began fine-tuning the technological process to adapt to the characteristics of the raw material and optimise operational modes. They introduced a press filter for dewatering the concentrate and a thickener to ensure a stable feed supply for flotation. Through experimental adjustments of reagent modes and flotation machine parameters, the team achieved significant results, with daily production of flotation concentrate increasing by approximately 28% since the beginning of the year, reaching a maximum of 356 tonnes per day in dry mass.
The next objective for the team is to optimise the technology to reach 100% capacity and maintain the stability of the achieved results. Baurzhan Utemisov, the director of Donskoy GOK, emphasised the importance of providing additional raw materials to ferroalloy plants without increasing extraction. “Chrome has already been mined, and our task is to maximise the use of this resource, returning it to production rather than leaving it in waste. This reflects a careful approach to natural resources: not to take more but to learn to use what we already have more effectively,” he stated.
