In December 2012, in accordance with the Decree of the Scientific Technical Council of the JSC “NAC “Kazatomprom” and its subsequent resolution, a working group was established to prepare a feasibility study for “Establishing an experimental-production intellectual mine of the new generation “Smart-mine” (hereinafter – Project). The Action Plan was approved to implement the project.
“Ortalyk” site of the “Mynkuduk” deposit was selected for the project implementation. Activities of the project will be conducted in six years, including follow-up exploration of the mine and prospecting and evaluation work. Estimated production capacity of the Smart-mine is 200-250 tons of uranium per year. The Action Plan includes uncovering and exploration of six experimental geotechnological blocks.
The project is aimed at organization and construction of uranium mining complex of the new generation to test and adapt new technological and technical solutions at before-production and production scale. The implementation of the project will allow decreasing production cost of uranium mining and processing using in-situ leaching (ISL) by 10-30%, which includes: