Volume 9 Edition 3 2012 - The ASIA Miner

Central AsiaIndia and China lead charge in AfghanistanINDIA and China have already secured majormining projects in resource-rich Afghanistanand both are now eyeing off further opportunities.To support their investments, both resource-hungrynations are also contributingto infrastructure development.The Afghan government, eager to rebuildas well as attract investment, has pr oclaimedthat the country holds an estimatedUS$3 trillion in natural resources. The deposits,which yield copper and iron ore, oil andgas, niobium, cobalt, gold, molybdenum,silver and lithium, could lift the country’s coffersby US$3.5 billion a year.The Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC)owns 75% of the Aynak Copper Project, inLogar province, 30km southeast of Kabul,with Jiangxi Copper holding the balance. In2007 the two Chinese companies won atender to develop the mine, outbidding rivalsfrom the US, Canada and Kazakhstan.Production is expected to start at the endof 2014 at the earliest after delays causedby the discovery of historic relics and the relocationof local residents. The mine, whichwill cost about US$1.7 billion to develop, isexpected to have an annual copper outputof 200,000 tonnes. According to Soviet-eradata and a more recent study by the UnitedStates Geological Survey, Aynak could yieldmore than 11 million tonnes of copper.The Hajigak Iron Ore Project, whose developmentwas awarded last November toan Indian consortium of seven companiesled by state-owned Steel Authority of India,is the highest for eign direct investment inAfghanistan with a total pr oject cost estimateof US$11 billion.Hajigak, in Bamyan pr ovince, holds aniron oxide deposit that extends over 32kmand covers 16 separate zones, up to 5kmin length, 380 metres wide and extending550 metres down with an estimated 1.8 billiontonnes of iron ore.The consortium is part of India’s government-ledinitiatives to boost participationin Afghanistan, where India has pledged$2 billion in investments. It has so far undertakenprojects involving power, roads,agriculture, telecommunications, educationand health. It is also eyeing off furthermineral resources and is more than likelyto bid for further blocks to be released, includingothers in copper at Aynak as wellas gold and lithium.Feasibility studies for rail pr ojects havealso been lined up. To be financed by MCC,the first will run from the Pakistani border toAynak and to Kabul. It will link Hajigak toKabul and to the Uzbek frontier. The secondroute, being studied by the Asian DevelopmentBank, will head south to Iran, wher eminerals could be shipped to India.Kyzyl gold resources increase by 18%The Kyzyl Gold Project of Altynalmas Gold is in northeast Kazakhstan.AN independent feasibility study estimates mineralreserves of 5.76 million ounces of gold atAltynalmas Gold’s Kyzyl Gold Project in northeasternKazakhstan. The estimate is based onan underground mining operation annually producingan average of 337,000 ounces of goldduring an initial mine life of up to 15 years.The project encompasses the re-developmentof the Bakyrchik underground mine andthe construction of a new pr ocessing plantincorporating fluidized-bed ore-roasting technologyand supporting mine infrastructur e.Altynalmas is 50%-owned by Ivanhoe Mines.Other highlights of the study include:• The successful completion of performancetesting of a metallurgical process that recoversat least 88% of contained gold.• The development of an innovative andproprietary ore treatment process thatproduces an environmentally stable, ironarsenate mineral by-product that meetsinternational environmental standards.• An 18% increase in the indicated r esources,inclusive of reserves, at Kyzyl, whichnow contains an estimated 7.35 millionounces of gold as of December 1, 2011.The project also contains an additional 3million ounces of gold in inferr ed resources.The resources are within the Bakyrchikand Bakyrchik East deposits.The study, based on December 1, 2010 resources,confirms the economics supportingmineral reserves and describes an extended,20-year life-of-mine sensitivity case that includesadditional indicated and inferr ed resources.Drilling pr ograms focused onconverting inferred resources to indicated resources,before and after the 2010 estimate,have been successful, providing confidencein the sensitivity case.Altynalmas’ president and CEO David Woodallsays, “W ith our successful and continuingresource delineation and r eserveconversion, the confirmation of the gold r e-covery process and the support of the Government,we are pleased to be in a positionnow to start the construction and developmentof a state-of-the-art operation.12 | ASIA Miner | May/June 2012