Core Resources has delivered an advanced metallurgical pilot plant to AK Altynalmas, Kazakhstan’s largest gold producer, building on a long-term relationship between the two companies. Over the past year, the project has involved extensive metallurgical testwork and process and engineering design in Australia; equipment procurement and fabrication in Australia and China; delivery to site in Kazakhstan; and onsite support for construction, commissioning, operational readiness, plant operations and training. The successful delivery reflects a stellar collaboration between Australia and Kazakhstan.
The metallurgical pilot plant was designed to treat Altynalmas’ multiple refractory gold and polymetallic orebodies from AK Altynalmas. It includes flotation concentrate regrinding, two trains of six x 60L Albion ProcessTM reactors; two trains of three x 30L Albion Process™ reactors designed to operate under both neutral and acidic conditions; iron neutralisation; copper and zinc precipitation; a carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, gold elution; Merrill-Crowe processing, copper and zinc solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) and a SART pilot plant to remove copper from high-copper CIL solutions.
Supported by Core’s expert technical team, including Rod Ventura, Miron Maxemniuc, -Adrian Platt and Tarun Grover, the AK Altynalmas pilot plant was successfully installed and commissioned and over the past two and a half months has completed pilot plant operations testing of seven different orebodies.
Bakhrom Dzhalolov, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Committee Member at AK Altynalmas, said “The successful delivery and commissioning of this pilot plant represent a significant milestone in the realisation of JSC AK Altynalmas’ long-term vision to establish a Scientific Centre for the Integrated Recovery of Mineral Resources in Akbakai. This initiative has been developed over many years and has been made possible through the support and shared strategic vision of our shareholders and company leadership. Our objective was not merely to build a pilot facility, but to create a world-class research and innovation platform capable of developing, testing, and optimising process technologies for refractory gold-bearing and polymetallic ores from a wide range of deposits. Today, we have successfully established a unique complex that integrates flotation, ultra-fine grinding, Albion Process™, hydrometallurgical processes, precious metals recovery and process flowsheet optimisation within a single, fully integrated centre”.
He continued: “Facilities of this scale and technological flexibility are rare even by global standards. We believe that the Akbakai Scientific Centre has the potential to become one of the leading centres for metallurgical innovation in Central Asia and beyond, contributing to the development of more efficient, sustainable and economically attractive solutions for the processing of complex mineral resources. This pilot complex enables us to significantly accelerate technology development, reduce project risks and make more informed investment decisions based on data generated under conditions that closely replicate industrial operations. We highly value the technical expertise, professionalism and dedication demonstrated by the Core team throughout every stage of this project’s implementation. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Core as we pursue our ambitious goal of transforming Akbakai into a globally recognised centre of excellence in mineral processing and metallurgical innovation”.
Core is proud to support AK Altynalmas in developing the Akbakai Scientific Centre and look forward to continuing the partnership with AK Altynalmas in the future.
Published by International Mining, read the release here
