HPC AG ~ Limestone deposit, Kazakhstan

HPC HARRESS PICKEL CONSULT AG - the engineer enterprise

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Limestone deposit, Kazakhstan

Desposits

If buildings are to be constructed or a whole city or even a new capital, as Astana, that evolves in Kazakhstan in the Steppe, cement is needed. If you don’t want to import the whole cement from other countries, as currently in Kazakhstan, a cement plant must be constructed and for the production of cement above all limestone and clay is needed.

Introduction:
In the north of Kazakhstan, in a unparalleled constructing activity, a completely new capital is built – Astana. A futuristic metropolis is in progress, that needs a lot of concrete. The cement for this purpose is imported mainly from Turkey, China and Russia. After the break down of the Soviet Union, i. e. since 15 years, no new cement plant had been built in the former Soviet republics. This should be changed. A Kazakh investors group had developed a new project and purchased the limestone deposit, that is required as raw material.

Duty:
For the financing of this project (with an investment of several 100 mill. Euro), there is one point of fundamental importance: Are there enough raw materials available in adequate quality for the operation of the new cement plant? HPC had been entrusted to assess the supply of the intended deposit in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan and its worth according to international standards.

The capacities of the cement plant were geared towards a production of 5.500 t clinker per day. For the assessment of the deposit investigation reports existed from Soviet times, the last one from 1955. Already at this time the deposit had been investigated detailed with several drillings. The limestone deposit embraces an area of approx. 2 km².

performance
Together with FLSmidth, the world market leader of cement plants, currently kiln experiments of clinker production had been executed, which showed excellent results for the production of high-quality Portland-cement. The experts of HPC checked the deposit during the site visit, mapped the local infrastructure, collected random samples of the limestone and clay and made advanced analyses.

The recalculation of the deposit reserves were 180 Mio. t limestone and 17 Mio. t mudstone. This raw material will last the intended material mix assumed for 86 years (limestone) or for 42 years (mudstone) for the Cement production and is therefore estimated to be sufficient for the planned operating time. As the existing infrastructure possesses all requirements needed for the planned industrial settlement, initially all frame conditions seemed to be positive for the planned project. Very positive yet, if not during processing old investigation results out of Kazakh archives had been identified, which showed results over a heightened radioactivity of single supply blocks. The obligation for executive care demands to consider this during the work of HPC. By the selection of these blocks, the supply would have been decreased significantly and from a resource no economically usable supply would have been emerged. The whole project would have been finished as economically infeasible. After the research of the current law and further investigations the all-clear could be given. The radioactivity of the utility stones was below the maximum allowable value, therefore no restrictions for their use exist.

With the due diligence and the value estimation report of HPC the needed assurance regarding the efficiency of the project for the investors could be proofed, which caused the enabling of the credit for the construction of the cement plant.

In June 2008 the cement plant is under construction and its production is expected to start at the end of 2009.

Service information

Tasks:

Determination and extraction of minerals
Guarantee of mining safety
Safekeeping of mine workings
Provisions for the re-utilisation of surfaces

Our services:

Design of investigation programs, reserves calculations
Valuation according to international standards
Operation plans for the establishment, management and discontinuation of mines
Licensing procedures, environmental impact assessments, investigation of contaminated land
Hydrogeological investigation, drainage plans
Stability tests and investigation of foundation soil
Conceptional designs of mine engineering, forecasts of caves to the surface and lowerings
Flooding and safekeeping concepts, radiological investigations
Mining information systems

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