Kazakhstan
Tsentralnoye Mining Directorate
Background
This page is part of the Facilities Collection.
Tsentralnoye Mining Directorate entered into production in 1982 at the Kanzhugan deposit. Uranium is extracted using a sulphuric acid leachate. 1 During the Soviet era, material from the Stepnoye and Tsentralnoye Mining Directorates was processed at Kara Balta Ore Mining Combine in Kyrgyzstan. In 1993, Kazakhstan reduced the amount of material shipped to Kyrgyzstan and redirected most uranium ore shipments to Tselinnyy Mining and Chemical Combine in Stepnogorsk. 2 In the 1990s, output from Tsentralnoye fell from from 1,200t in 1991 to less than 800t as a result of falling world prices for uranium and US anti-dumping policies. In 2000, the Directorate reported a 40% increase in productivity due to new pay incentives introduced at the mines. 3 Under a long-term contract, Nukem of Germany buys most of the uranium obtained from Tsentralnoye mines. 4
Activities
Tsentralnoye Mining Directorate produces uranium at Kanzhugan and Kainor deposits in Shymkent Oblast using the in-situ leaching (ISL) method. 5
Glossary
- Uranium
- Uranium is a metal with the atomic number 92. See entries for enriched uranium, low enriched uranium, and highly enriched uranium.
Sources
- Paul Carroll, “The Reconstruction of the Uranium Industry in Kazakhstan,” Presentation at the Uranium Institute’s Twenty Second Annual International Symposium 1997, Uranium Institute, www.uilondon.org.
- Oleg Bukharin and William Potter, “Kazakhstan—A Nuclear Profile,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, April 1994, p. 186.
- “Kazakhstan Develops New Uranium Deposit in South,” Kazakhstanskaya pravda, 15 July 2000, in FBIS Document CEP20000725000198.
- Andrei Ivanov, “Kazakhstan: Uranium Industry Come Out of the Doldrums,” 7 July 1996; Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, www.web.lexis-nexis.com; “District Court Denies Both Nukem’s Motion for Satisfaction of Judgment and the Petition of US Energy Corp and Crested Corp to Dissolve the Sheep Mountain Partnership,” PR Newswire Association, 20 July 1999; Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, www.web.lexis-nexis.com. “Kazakhstan,” Nuexco Review, 1994, p. 51.
- Heinrich Graul, “Uranium mining as seen in situ,” The Uranium Institute, No. 6, pp. 17-18; Tatyana Shkolnik, “The Development of Uranium Reserves in the Republic of Kazakhstan,” report provided to CISNP, August 1994, p. 2; Carole A. Grey, “Up Front in the CIS,” Nuclear Engineering International, May 1994, pp. 16-20.