South African company Bateman has recorded significant success in
mining, minerals, oil and gas projects in the Commonwealth of
Independent States to date.
In the latest developments, the company has been awarded a
$198-million contract to supply a gold-recovery complex to
Uzbekistan, as well as a contract to undertake a gold-deposit study
in Kazakhstan. The Uzbekistan contract entails the revamping and
modernisation of a gold-recovery complex for the Navoi Mining and
Metallurgical Kombinat. The complex will involve the No 3
hydrometallurgical plant, where a flotation process will be
introduced, and the expansion of mining facilities at the Kokpatas
and Daugystau gold deposits in the Kyzylkum desert. The proposed
complex will process five-million tons a yecardan shaft f fibrating screen swear of ore to produce 20
t/y of gold. It will be funded by a structured finance package
facilitated by Bateman, which often acts as a merchant banker in
order to develop large resources.
Export-credit agencies in the US, South Africa, Israel and Germany
will insure 85% of the total contract value with the remainder
being funded by commercial loans facilitated by the engineering
company.
This lump-sum project has two components, coverweight of dirt per cubic yarding the provision of
the process package for the Uchkuduk plant and the associated
equipment for all three sites.
The process package primarily covers the flotation and
bio-oxidation circuits. Bateman will supply the flotation
technology to recover gold-containing sulphides into flotation
concentrate which will be directed to the bio-oxidation circuit.
Bacteria will be used to promote the oxidation of the sulphides in
the gold ore in the bio-oxidation section of tbarite in drilling mud aggravating agenthe plant, after which
it will be treated conventionally. Biomin, part of the Gold Fields
group, will supply the process package for the bioleach section.
Bateman will undertake the detailed engineering design and
equipment procurement and supply to site, with the client handling
the construction under Bateman supervision. The commissioning of
the plant will be done by Bateman in association with the
technology suppliers.
After completion of the finiron ore crushing plant in indiaancial arrangements, the contract should
become effective by October, with the first deliveries to site
starting six months later and work completed in two years.
Commissioning the plant is scheduled towards the end of 2006.
„The project was awarded on the basis of the South African
company’s engineering ability and ability to facilitate the
required finance, together with its extensive project experience in
Uzbekistan,“ says a statement by the company. The company is
crushing equipment granite quarry nigeria
currently engaged on a $160M lump-sum turnkey project for a booster
gas-compression facility in the Shurtan gasfield in the south of
the country and it was the main contractor for a recovery plant
installed at Muruntau for the joint venture between Zarafshan and
Newmont which went on stream in 1995. This involved a large
crushing, screening and heap-leaching operation to extract gold
previously considered uneconomic to recover.
In the Kazakhstan project, Bateman will investigate the feasibility
of developing the Vasilkovskoye gold deposit.
The contract was awarded to the South African company by joint
venture Vasilkovskoye Gold, a Kazakh open joint-stock
company.
The study will include commercial and technical assessments to
prove the commercial viability of the deposit and determine the
technology, mining equipment and optimal size of a plant required
to fully exploit the deposit.
It should be completed early in 2003, and could lead to the
construction of a plant with a capital cost of between $150-million
and $200-million. It would be executed on a lump-sum turnkey basis
by Bateman, including design, construction and commissioning.
Bateman, owned jointly by management and an international
investment group, focuses on opportunities in developing countries
and has extensive experience in such countries. It has been
involved in numerous projects in the CIS since the early
1990s.
In the area of gold alone, the company has been involved in the
Muruntau project in Uzbekistan, the Sukhoi Log project in Siberia
and studies on the Kamchatka peninsula, Varvarinskoye in Kazakhstan
and Taror and Jilau in Tajikistan.