Tau-Ken Samruk and Cove Capital agree on tungsten deposit development in Kazakhstan, with investment of $1.1 bln (Part 2)Kazakhstan’s national mining company Tau-Ken Samruk and U.S.-based investment company Cove Capital have signed an agreement on the joint development of the North Katpar and Upper Kayrakty tungsten deposits, the press service of Kazakhstan’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna said in a Friday statement."Investment is estimated at about $1.1 billion," the statement said.According to Tau-Ken Samruk, over 10 tungsten deposits have been explored in Kazakhstan, with their total reserves estimated at more than 2 million tonnes of tungsten trioxide. The largest and most promising are the Uper Kayrakty and North Katpar deposits, located in the Karaganda region (central Kazakhstan).The subsoil use rights for the North Katpar and Upper Kayrakty deposits belong to North Katpar LLP, a subsidiary of national company Tau-Ken Samruk.According to the company, the reserves of the North Katpar deposit are approximately 90,000 tonnes of tungsten and 13,000 tonnes of molybdenum.The company notes that "the main difficulty associated with the start of developing the tungsten deposits is the lack of adequate beneficiation technologies in Kazakhstan that suit the specific characteristics of the deposits." According to Tau-Ken Samruk’s press service, the Beijing Institute of Mining and Metallurgy developed an improved ore beneficiation technology for the North Katpar deposit, which involves the by-production of copper, bismuth and molybdenum concentrates.According to Samruk-Kazyna, the Upper Kayrakty deposit is unique in terms of reserves (1.2 million tonnes of tungsten trioxide and 39,600 tonnes of molybdenum), but with low grades of valuable components (WO3 – 0.133%, Mo – 0.005%), necessitating significant volumes of ore extraction for profitable operation.Tau-Ken Samruk is engaged in the discovery, exploration, mining, processing and sale of solid minerals and is a portfolio company of Samruk-Kazyna Fund.Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC, organized in 2008, owns and operates strategic assets of Kazakhstan, including Air Astana, Kazakhtelecom, Kazatomprom, KazMunayGas, KazPost, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, KEGOC and others.Cove Capital LLC has been investing in mining projects from the exploration stage through to the construction phase since 2015. The company has offices in the United States and Australia. In Kazakhstan, the group holds a stake in the Akbulak REE Ltd joint venture through Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC (the other participant is KazGeology JSC) for the development of the Akbulak rare earth metals deposit in the Kostanay region. It also has an interest in KAZ Critical Minerals LLP (via KAZ Resources LLC). (ICE ALMATY)

Fonte notizia: INTERFAX