What has started in Shalkiya
On 1 September the Kyzylorda regional akimat announced the start of construction of the Burabay-Zhalgyzagash mining and processing plant in the village of Shalkiya in Zhanakorgan district. The project is being carried out by the Chinese company Liaoning Hongda Group, and investment in construction is estimated at 138 billion tenge. The Trend news agency converts this to roughly $300.7 million.
According to the akimat, once it reaches full capacity the plant will produce 210,000 tonnes of lead-zinc raw material and 20 tonnes of silver a year. Construction is planned to take two years, with full completion scheduled for 2028. More than 550 new jobs have been promised. At the launch of the works, regional akim Murat Yergeshbayev said: "I believe that the construction starting today will be completed successfully."
For comparison, according to the akimat, nine investment projects worth 6.7 billion tenge have been implemented in Zhanakorgan district over three years, and across the region 48 industrial projects worth 1.9 trillion tenge are planned for the next three years.
What work is already under way on site
The plant is still at the preparatory stage. The akimat lists what has been done and what is in progress:
- drilling to expand the deposit's mineral resource base;
- construction of site roads;
- identification of sites for future facilities;
- design and cost estimate documentation for connection to the power grid has already been drawn up, and electricity supply is promised shortly.
In other words, the first volumes of work on site involve roads, site preparation and drilling. This is work for contractors with road-building, earthmoving and drilling equipment, and it is already under way, long before the plant reaches its design capacity.
The underground mine: what the mining plan provides for
More detail about the future mine is contained in the minutes of public hearings published on the gov.kz portal. Hearings on the environmental impact report for the mining plan were held on 23 September 2025. According to the documents, the subsoil user at the deposit is HongDa Mining Company LLP, and the report was prepared by EcoOptimum LLP. Asked by a local resident about the mining method, a company representative replied: "There will be an underground mine."
Key parameters from the document:
- Reserves: 11,150,700 tonnes of ore, including 206,600 tonnes of lead at an average grade of 1.62% and 255,100 tonnes of zinc at 2.01%.
- Timeline: 2026–2027 are set aside for building the mine and infrastructure, with output of 370,000 tonnes of ore a year during this period. The design capacity of 1.0 million tonnes of saleable ore a year is to be reached in 2028, and the mine life is 15 years.
- Access: a central skip-and-cage vertical shaft and two ventilation shafts, with the working section at a depth of 500 m.
- Mining method: a combined room system with partial ore shrinkage and sublevel forced caving with scraper haulage; level height is 60 m.
- Rock and ore: hardness f above 10, the rock is slightly abrasive and silica content reaches 48%, so mining conditions are classed as silicosis-hazardous.
- Breaking: by blasting, with total explosives consumption of 3538 tonnes a year. The main explosives depot will be located 4 km east of the main industrial site, and underground distribution magazines are planned.
- Operating schedule: year-round, 365 days, in three 7-hour shifts.
Which equipment will be needed and which will not
The most important point for suppliers is the choice of equipment. The authors of the plan explain it by the mining conditions: the ore bodies are narrow and far apart, there are interlayers of waste rock, the workings cannot be ventilated effectively, and costs are high when self-propelled equipment is used. The plan therefore provides for compact, stationary or semi-stationary machinery, or combined systems with less capital-intensive haulage and stoping methods. Underground, ore, waste rock, materials and equipment will be hauled by trolley electric locomotives. Waste rock from capital development and drifting is to be placed in the mined-out space of the old mine.
Logistics also need to be taken into account. According to the document, Kyzylorda lies 195 km north-west of the deposit and is linked to it by a regional highway, while the Zhanakorgan railway station is 20 km away. At the hearings the company representative also promised that half of the workforce would be hired locally, and a sanitary protection zone of 500 m has been proposed for the mine.
There are caveats. The akimat's figures and those in the mining plan describe different indicators: one refers to lead-zinc raw material and silver, the other to saleable ore, so they should not be compared directly. In addition, the document itself states that mine construction issues will be considered in detail in separate working documentation, so the equipment list may still be refined.
What equipment owners and dealers should do
- Contractors with road-building and earthmoving equipment should approach the client now: site preparation and site roads are being built in 2026.
- Suppliers of underground equipment would do better to focus on stationary and semi-stationary solutions, scraper haulage and electric locomotive haulage rather than on self-propelled machines.
- Service companies should take into account the mine's year-round three-shift schedule: at that level of utilisation, repairs and spare parts are needed close to the site.
Sources
- Kapital.kz, "В Кызылординской области за 138 млрд тенге построят новый ГОК", 2026-09-01: https://kapital.kz/economic/152363/v-kyzylordinskoj-oblasti-za-138-mlrd-tenge-postroyat-novyj-gok.html
- Digital Business, "В Казахстане появится комбинат с производством 20 тонн серебра в год", 2026-09-01: https://digitalbusiness.kz/2026-09-01/v-kazahstane-poyavitsya-kombinat-s-proizvodstvom-20-tonn-serebra-v-god/amp/
- Trend News Agency, "Chinese company starts construction of lead-zinc and silver plant in Kazakhstan", 2026-09-02: https://www.trend.az/casia/kazakhstan/4219904.html
- gov.kz, "Протокол общественных слушаний по проекту «Отчет о возможных воздействиях к проекту «План горных работ для разработки месторождения полиметаллических руд «Бурабай-Жалгызагаш»»", 2025-09-29: https://www.gov.kz/uploads/2025/9/29/0051d54da003859a6049dbb919760878_original.7244500.pdf
