In the Ulytau region of Kazakhstan, the development of the mothballed Zhomart mine will be resumed. Ferromanganese ores at the deposit will be mined by Manganese Zhairema JSC. The company posted the mining plan on the Unified Environmental Portal of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Production is planned to take place in 2024–2033. Before starting to develop the reserves, specialists need to drain the quarry, which currently contains about 1.84 million m3 of water. During the year, quarry water will be pumped out and purified to standard categories.
As of January 1, 2023, the balance reserves of iron ore amount to about 5,330 thousand tons, manganese – 8,733 thousand tons. In the first year of operation of the Zhomart mine, they plan to extract 500 thousand tons of raw materials, after which Manganese Zhairema will reach its design capacity capacity 750 thousand tons of ore per year.
The mined ore will be processed, as it was done before the mothballing of the deposit, at the processing plant of the Zhairemsky Mining and Processing Plant. The company intends to resume production of commercial concentrate containing 35% manganese and 10.5% iron. The company plans to produce 270 thousand tons of finished products per year.
