Close cooperation with industrial enterprises allows us to introduce our technologies into production.

Interview with the Director General of the National Center for Integrated Processing of Mineral Raw Materials of the Republic of Kazakhstan, academician Abdurasul Zharmenov

Mining and Metallurgical Industry Magazine No.5-6, 2019

The National Center for Integrated Processing of Mineral Raw Materials of the Republic of Kazakhstan is a quarter of a century old!

A distinctive feature of the center has always been an integrated approach to the processing of mineral raw materials: from mining and processing to metallurgical processing, including automation and digitalization of technological processes.

The institutes of the National Center for Mining named after D. A. Kunaev, industrial Ecology "Kazmehanobr", Chemical and Metallurgical named after J. Abishev, Eastern Research Non–ferrous Metals "Vniitsvetmet" complement each other, providing a full cycle of transformation of raw materials from ore to metal products. These reputable industry organizations are known far beyond the borders of Kazakhstan.

About the achievements in the jubilee's piggy bank, which deserve the attention and respect of the scientific community and industry, – in an interview with the Director General of the National Center for Integrated Processing of Mineral Raw Materials of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Academician Abdurasul Zharmenov.

– What were the reasons for the opening of the center?

– The decision to establish national centers for priority areas of the country's economy was driven by the state's desire to give a new impetus to scientific research in these areas and accelerate the introduction of scientific achievements into industry. This was to be facilitated by the unification into one organization of academic institutes that performed mainly fundamental research without specific commercial and practical goals, and industry institutes that dealt only with solving specific technological problems of industrial enterprises.

The first Ministers of science and New technologies of independent Kazakhstan, Abilsiitov G.A. and Shkolnik V.S., were involved in the reorganization of the scientific sphere

– Abdurasul Aldashevich, tell us about the establishment of the center. Surely the 25-year history of his activity was not just a series of victories and achievements.

– Yes, we had to defend our existence with real actions against the will and desire of high-ranking opponents of the new scientific system. Contrary to their predictions, our team not only survived, but also became the largest scientific and production center in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the field of extraction, enrichment and processing of solid mineral raw materials. This is a great merit of Elbasy. At least a dozen times I had to address the Head of State, N.A. Nazarbayev, on pressing issues of our company. It is gratifying that I have not only received the support of Nursultan Abishevich, but all these years he has shown great interest in the center's activities, the results obtained, and as an experienced metallurgist he has given sound advice and recommendations that have largely ensured the success of our work.

The Ministry of Industry and the personal participation of ministers and Vice ministers have greatly contributed to the establishment and development of the National Center.

The Ministry of Science, despite departmental disunity, supported the participation of scientists from the National Center in fundamental and applied research in priority areas of science.

The diverse activities of the National Center and the active life position of scientists in Kazakhstan brought us together with other heads of government agencies and deputies of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who delved into the essence of the issues and provided all possible support.

– Abdurasul Aldashevich, what are the largest developments in the field of extraction and primary processing of mineral raw materials, offered by your scientists to production workers, is the center proud of?

– For example, this is the technology of underground mining of ore from the Maleevsky deposit and its processing at the Zyryanovsky processing plant. The created development ensured an increase in the production capacity of the plant and the comprehensive use of mineral raw materials in the selective extraction of various types of ores. At the same time, the cost and environmental risks have decreased, and the safety of work has increased.

We have developed new variants of a descending layered mining system for processing unstable ores from the Orlovsky and Artemyevsky deposits. The introduction of the technology has made it possible to reduce the cost of managing rock pressure, increase the stability of the artificial roof by establishing a rational procedure for processing deposits in the layer and sub-floors in the block without reducing the front of ore extraction.

At the Tishinsky, Ridder-Sokolny, Maleevsky, Orlovsky, Artemyevsky, Pervomaisky mines, the technology of mill preparation of a high-density filler mixture from waste from mining, metallurgical and fuel industries and pipeline gravity delivery of pulp to the depleted space has been introduced.

For a number of years, the National Center has been the general designer of SSGPO JSC. Reconstruction projects of the Kacharsky quarry have been implemented involving the development of the Southern section of the deposit and the construction of a quarry based on the Yuzhno-Sarbayskoye iron ore deposit.

– In recent years, the center's staff has been actively helping mining and metallurgical enterprises introduce innovative positioning systems for people and equipment and software for managing production processes.

– Our scientists have developed and successfully implemented an automated positioning system for personnel and self-propelled equipment at the Voskhod-Oriel LLP mine. The system, which is general–purpose, high–speed, and multi-channel, provides continuous data collection and transmission to dispatching and rescue services about the location of personnel and self-propelled equipment in the mine to control the production process and make decisions in case of accidents.

Various software and methodological products have been created for operational planning and management of technological processes at quarries, which are modules of an automated corporate management system for a geotechnological complex based on open developments called Jetygara. They are widely used in enterprises in Kazakhstan and Russia.: JSC SSGPO, JSC Kostanay Minerals, JV Nova Zinc LLP, RU Kazmarganets, JSC Orenburg Minerals, Gemcom Russia PTY Ltd.

– Abdurasul Aldashevich, what original technologies are the staff of the institutes of the National Center implementing with the production staff?

– VNIITSVETMET is known to all major global lead and zinc producers as the creator of the KIVCET process and an oxygen-suspended-cyclone-electrothermal lead smelting plant, where for the first time the firing and melting processes were combined in one unit.

This process was successfully implemented in Bolivia, Italy and Ust-Kamenogorsk in the 1980s. Later, the technology and the melting unit were significantly upgraded. An improved installation has been operating in Trail (Canada) since 1997. In 2003 and 2012, modernization was carried out at Portovesme S.r.l. (Italy). In 2012 and 2013, two KIVCET installations were built and launched in China at the enterprises of Jiangxi Copper Corporation and Zhuzhou Smelter Group. Today, 420 thousand tons of primary lead per year are smelted using KIVCET technology, that is, one tenth of the world's production.

All the institutes of the National Center are actively and fruitfully engaged in gold. The high efficiency of technology is confirmed by the world's leading gold companies, including BarrickGold, Newmont, and PlacerDome. Today, every third ton of gold in Kazakhstan is produced according to the developments of our scientists. This includes the extraction of gold from the ores of Kazzink LLP, Kelinshektau, Shovan, Verkhniye Kumysty, Zholbarysty, Varvarinskoye, Mizek, Bestobe, Uzboy, Zhanan, Mukur, Miyaly, Balazhal, Aksu, Zhaltyrbulak, Vasilyevskoye, Komarovskoye. In Russia – Allah-Yun ZIF, Sakhazoloto CJSC, Kyrgyzstan – Bozumchak, Uzbekistan – Angren, China – Asi ZIF.

According to Kazmehanobr's projects, Varvarinskoye CJSC plants were built, for smelting Dore alloy in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk and Stepnogorsk, a refining plant in Astana, and a ZIF for processing ores from Akbakai and Pustynnoye deposits.

JSC Zhaltyrbulak has created a full production cycle, and since 2018, high-quality commercial products have been produced that comply with the National Standard CT PK 2690-2015 "Cathode Gold".

FIC Alel JSC has established the processing of carbonaceous-arsenic sulfide ores with the preg-robbing effect, the so-called double persistence, using a three-stage flotation scheme, which reduces the loss of gold with tailings by 50%. Technological solutions for the reconstruction of the processing plant have doubled its productivity. In 2017, a hot cyanidation workshop for stale and current sorption leaching tailings was launched (the second precedent in world practice. – Ed.).

– Ferromanganese is the main component in steel smelting. Kazakhstan ranks second among the CIS countries in terms of manganese reserves. What are the achievements of our scientists in creating industrial production facilities for manganese alloys?

– We developed technologies and participated in the launch of manganese ferroalloy production facilities in Temirtau and Taraz.

However, Kazakhstan has exhausted highly concentrated manganese ores, and the current ones are ferromanganese, from which standard manganese ferroalloys cannot be smelted using current technologies due to the low manganese content and high iron content. Abishev Chemical Engineering Institute has developed several options for cost-effective processing of ferromanganese ores to produce manganese cast iron, rich manganese slag, and conditioned iron and manganese concentrates suitable for smelting manganese alloys.