The Russian Copper Company (RCC) will invest about $1 billion in the construction of a mining and processing plant in Kazakhstan, Kallanish notes.

The company will receive the right to develop the Aidarly copper deposit in the Abay region, says regional governor Nurlan Urankhaev.

Last July, RCC’s president Vsevolod Levin discussed the project with Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov in a meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Levin spoke about the production activities of its in the Aktobe region, as well as plans for the implementation of projects at the Koksay field in the Zhetysu region and Aidarly in the Abay region.

According to Smailov, the development of the Koksay and Aidarly fields is of great importance for Kazakhstan. 

Koksay is a copper deposit producing about 85,000 tonnes/year of copper. Previously, it was developed by KAZ Minerals, whose shares were bought by Kazakh oligarch Vladimir Kim in 2021. He owns a 70% stake in the Kazakhmys Corporation, which is considered the largest copper producer in Kazakhstan.

The Aidarly copper deposit is being developed by Kazakhmys.

In 2021, the Russian Copper Company increased copper production to 386,000 t, up by 28% on-year.

Last January, Mikheevsky Mining and Processing Plant, part of RCC, completed exploration of two new subsoil plots - Zapadny and Nikolaevsky, which are located less than 10 km from the enterprise in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. 

As a result, the company's total ore reserves increased by 60% to 880 million t, including copper reserves increased by 44% to 2.84m t.

The reserves of the new sites have been put on the state balance sheet, and the active phase of their development will start no earlier than 2024.