Baikal Mining Company announced on August 10 that it had started capital development with waste pre-stripping and some pre-production mining of ore in the Zapadniy open-pit of the Udokan copper deposit. The development of two open-pit areas is scheduled within the first phase of the Udokan project development.
The deposit is situated in Kalar District of Zabaikalye Region and is the third largest undeveloped copper deposit globally. The first stage of production will amount to 12 Mt/y of copper ore. The mine will produce copper cathodes and sulphide concentrate.
The project engineering design has also changed in terms of shifting the deposit’s capital development dates from 2021 to 2020. The basic engineering changes were approved following a meeting of the Central Committee for Solid Minerals Development under the Federal Agency of Mineral Resources.
V. Kazikaev, Chair of the Board of BMC commented: “We are starting the actual mining – an event that has been anticipated by the industry for 70 years starting from the very discovery.” Even before Zapadniy open-pit is put into operation, the early development work includes the mining of over 1.1 Mt of ore.
The capital development of Zapadniy will be delivered in close compliance with the mining plan, survey guidelines, and instructions from the ompany’s geological office. As per the schedule, the scope of works in 2020 will amount to 335,000 t of associated ore and 808,000 m3 of solid rock.
The initial development is using a fleet of smaller Liebherr 9100 and Komatsu PC1250 hydraulic excavators loading 55 t capacity A60H Volvo ADTs. This early capital development will be followed by the preparation of pads, mine roads and stripping dumps, that will allow for application of the main ultraclass open-pit mining equipment to ensure the designed output of ore.
BMC is part of the diversified USM Group (the founder is Alisher Usmanov), and is the operator of Udokan Copper Project. USM also owns Metalloinvest another major miner and steel producer, the operator of the Lebedinsky GOK and Mikhailovsky GOK iron ore mines.
As the plant ramps up to its full capacity, jobs will be created for up to 5,000 people, and for up to 20,000 people in linked industries. Operation of the Udokan Mining and Metallurgical Plant will contribute up to 10% to the GRP of the Zabaikalye Region. In 2019, Gazprom, VEB.RF and Sberbank issued a consortium loan of up to $1.79 billion for development of Udokan Copper Project.