Reuters reported that Kazakhstan's state run miner Tau Kent Samruk clinched a deal with Slovak firm Radington Industrial Consulting aiming to develop jointly a large lead deposit in the Central Asian state.

Mr Bolat Svyatov CEO of Tau Kent Samruk said that "We initially estimate this project will need an investment of around USD 50 million. Alaigyr, located in the Karaganda region in central Kazakhstan is estimated to hold around 50 million tonnes of lead ore.”

He said that the Slovak partner in the 50 50 JV with Tau Kent Samruk would provide the necessary technologies and financing worth a total of around USD 50 million.

Mr Martin Brezina a partner in Radington Industrial Consulting said that the JV would process annually 1 million tonnes of ore. It would produce first lead concentrate in 2015. The venture is set to achieve its full nameplate capacity of 70,000 tonnes of lead concentrate by 2017.

(Sourced from Reuters)