Fundamentally new technologies in the mining and metallurgical industry

Kazakh scientists have developed a world-class technology complex that ensures the efficient economic circulation of hard-to-extract, low-quality, and written-off mineral resources in our country.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in his Address to the People of Kazakhstan "Kazakhstan in a New Reality: Action Phase," noted that an important task facing the country is to fully unlock its industrial potential by rapidly developing new areas of processing in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. In this regard, one of the key principles of economic growth is increasing productivity, expanding the scale of the economy, and enhancing its technological capacity, relying on our competitive advantages and real opportunities.

It is well known that Kazakhstan belongs to the group of world leaders in terms of mineral resource reserves and their diversity; however, in terms of ore quality, it lags behind many countries. Currently, during the development of mineral deposits, the depth of extraction is increasing, the quality of mined ores is declining, mining-geological, mining-technical, and geomechanical conditions are becoming significantly more complex, and large volumes of mined-out areas are appearing. Copper and lead-zinc sub-sectors face serious challenges related to the extraction and processing of ores poor in main elements, oxidized, and mixed polymetallic ores.

In this direction, over the last 30 years, scientists from the National Center for Comprehensive Processing of Mineral Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development, as well as from M. Auezov South Kazakhstan University, which has an established scientific school in this field, have worked extensively. As a result, they proposed a world-class technology complex protected by Eurasian and Kazakhstani patents, which allows the efficient production use of hard-to-extract, low-quality, and written-off ores in thick seams, large spoil areas, mine bottoms and pillars, deep-seated concentrations, small and remote deposits. Several features of the proposed technology complexes are noteworthy. First, all developed technologies were tested and optimized together with the relevant domestic production facilities, and most of them have been implemented in production.

The implementation of mining technologies at the Tishin and Maleev deposits provided an economic benefit equivalent to 1.5 million USD, and at the Zhezkazgan deposits, approximately 50 million tons of additional ore have been mined since 2004. The implementation at JSC "Kostanay Minerals" enabled the formation of an internal dump with a capacity of 34 million tons, resulting in an economic benefit of 1.2 million USD. New and highly efficient hydro-impulse technologies in underground production reduce the volume of preparatory mining works 2–4 times, decrease operating costs by 1.3–1.5 times, and ensure safety.

In metallurgy, fundamental new technological solutions developed based on scientific research make it possible to transfer approximately 1 billion tons of ore to active reserves, increase the degree of complex use of copper ores by 2.5–2.8 times, and generate up to 36.5 million USD annually from processing 100,000 tons of zinc ores. A high-purity ferroalloy FS75 for electrical steel smelting has been developed, reducing the production cost per ton of alloy to 350 USD.

Fundamentally new solutions for complex technological processing of ores without the conventional enrichment stage have been developed. Oxidized zinc and copper ores can be processed in a single furnace to simultaneously obtain several product types, and the complex processing principle has been tested in production conditions.

Hydrometallurgical technologies for processing more than twenty oxidized and mixed low-quality copper deposits have been developed, and since 2019, an additional 50,000 tons of cathode copper are produced annually, representing 12% of the country's total copper production.

Another significant achievement is the scientific discovery that allows accelerating the process of obtaining silicon ferroalloys while reducing electricity consumption by up to 30%, which was awarded an internationally recognized diploma. The international recognition of the results confirms the high level of research conducted by our scientists.

The new technology complex ensures a significant increase in the competitiveness of the entire mining and metallurgical sector in Kazakhstan, providing substantial economic and social benefits. This work underlies the nomination of A. J. Terlikbayeva, D. K. Aytkulov, A. I. Ananin, N. K. Abdibekov, N. S. Buktikov, A. P. Volkov, L. B. Kushakova, and V. M. Shevko for the 2021 Al-Farabi State Prize of the Republic of Kazakhstan for their work "Development and Industrial Implementation of Fundamentally New Technologies for Efficient Economic Circulation of Hard-to-Extract, Low-Quality, and Written-Off Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan." Such works, supported by both government and business sectors, enhance the global prestige of our independent country's economy.

Altinbek Nukhuly,

Member of the Senate of the Parliament,

Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan,

Academician of the International Academy of Engineering Sciences, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor

Source: egemen.kz