Officials at Frontier Mining Ltd., a private copper producer in Kazakhstan, announced further $17.9 million in financing from Sberbank Kazakhstan, allowing for expansion at its Benkala solvent extraction/electro-winning (SX-EW) plant via a 100%-owned unit KazCopper LLP. A further $6 million in capital expenditures will bring capacity to 10,000 metric tons per year.
Frontier CEO Yerlan Aliyev said he is “keen” to resume operations at Benkala in the former Soviet Republic. “Continued development of the site offers considerable benefits to the company and our shareholders,” he added.
In 2013, work will bring Benkala’s exploration activities to Baitemir, a possible copper gold porphyry deposit with associated molybdenum in the northeast of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic. Frontier has a 100% stake in Baitemir via its 100%-owned subsidiary FML.
Frontier Mining is a copper company with production, development and exploration operations in Kazakhstan and primary activity at Benkala, an open-pit mine and SX-EW production facility in the Urals copper gold ore belt in northwest Kazakhstan. With a technical office in Almaty, the former Kazakh capital city, it also maintains offices in Aktyubinsk and Semipalatinsk, near Benkala and Baitemir operations.
