Meyram Badanov
General director, Nova Zinc JV LLC

    Today in Kazakhstan just a few people doubt the high efficiency of foreign investments in the country’s economy. The foreign capital is particularly active in the oil and mineral raw material sectors of the republic. The experience shows that exactly joint ventures are developing most rapidly and most successfully. Histories of their formation are all alike. The history of Nova Zinc JV LLC is no exception. Nova Zinc is operating in the mining-and-metallurgical industry being engaged in extraction and processing of zinc-lead ores.
The history of the enterprise’ development is an example of how one may succeed during economic recession and in adverse conditions on world markets of raw materials.
Nova Zinc started its activity with mining zinc-lead ores at the Akzhal deposit. Switzerland’s Nova Trading & Commerce AG, which acquired the property complex of Akzhal, was behind the company’s formation. The Akzhal group of polymetal deposits is located in the Karaganda region. A concentrating mill with an annual production volume of 80,000 tons was put in operation there as far back as the 1950s. A new mill with a designed capacity of 1.5 million tons of ore a year was later commissioned.

The volume of the investment program to revive the deposit’s operation – it was practically at a standstill by the time Nova Trading & Commerce AG arrived – under the contract with Kazakhstan’s government amounted to $12M. Urgent restoration works were being done. A lot was implemented: the boiler house and sections of the main water pipeline were repaired, a railroad company and a motor carrier as well as new mining equipment were acquired, a repair and mechanics shop as well as an explosive material shop were constructed. In 2001 the government of the republic declared the contract fulfilled. Today the enterprise has no debts either to the state budget or to suppliers of goods and services. Last year Nova Zinc was recognized as one of the best taxpayers in Kazakhstan.

Akzhalsky mine of zinc-lead ores

Its products are shipped to metallurgical enterprises in Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan. Since concentrates have a high content of mineral components (Zn – 55%, Pb – 65%) and there are no detrimental impurities, trade partners appreciate the quality of Nova Zinc’s products. In 2001a shop of heavy suspensions to enrich poor and off-balance ores started operations. As a result, the volume of commercial products increased 20% to 25% in two years and the deposit’s service life was extended. The shop, which was constructed in 2 years, cost $3M. Seeking to expand the ore base Nova Zinc is financing geological exploration with its own funds. There are contracts with Kazakhstan’s government for exploring and mining polymetal ores at deposits in the Zhambylsk and Karaganda regions. Together with the National center of complex processing of mineral raw materials and a number of the industry’s scientific institutes Nova Zinc is working on a system of optimal planning of mining-and-concentrating operations as well as on ecological problems.

Heavy suspension shop

At present, there are 1.1 thousand people employed at the Akzhal deposit. The company concluded a collective agreement with a local labor union. Under this agreement the enterprise’s workers are provided with heath care. Thanks to Nova Zinc residents of the Akzhal settlement can use a satellite communication. Nova Zinc provides assistance to the region’s residents regardless of the fact that the contract signed at the time of purchasing the Akzhal property complex did not provide for any social obligations. In five years of Nova Zinc’s operation its funds for social needs were used to repair the local public school and summer camp for schoolchildren. It arranged social assistance to retirees and the poor, financial support for students attending Kazakhstan’s colleges and did many other things.
This year the company marked its fifth anniversary. Having a clear-cut development program Zinc JV LLC managed to achieve real success.