Kazakhmys pressing ahead with new copper project
By Tatyana Seroshtanova
ALMATY, April 10 (Reuters) - Kazakh copper major Kazakhmys (KAZ.L) said on Thursday it started a feasibility study into a big new mining complex designed to help it boost copper output.
Production at Kazakhmys, the world's 10th biggest copper producer, fell 6.3 percent to 381,200 tonnes in 2007 after a flood at one of the mines. The company has said it does not expect a rise this year.
Its hopes now lie with the Aktogai mining complex in central Kazakhstan -- an ambitious project that could add another 150,000 tonnes to annual output.
"The feasibility study is being drafted now," Kazakhmys spokesman Nurlan Makhmudov said by telephone from Zhezkazgan, an industrial city where the company's mining facilities are based.
Kazakhmys has not said how much it will spend on building the new complex.
"Only once it is ready we will be able to talk about project costs," Makhmudov added.
The project's details will be finalised by the end of this year, he said, adding that Kazakhmys would finance it using its own funds.
The complex will be built in two stages. Initially it will produce only copper cathode while the second stage will see construction of a plant able to produce copper concentrate, Makhmudov said.
Total reserves of the Aktogai field are estimated at 5.6 million tonnes of copper, he said.
Kazakhmys said previously the Aktogai complex would reach full capacity by 2011, but Makhmudov said the timeline had yet to be finalised.
(Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Chris Johnson)
