2. Kazphosphate
A pipeline of
improvements
General director Mukash Iskandirov explains to Gay
Sutton how the phosphate mining and manufacturing
company Kazphosphate is introducing the latest
technology to take advantage of the growing market
for high quality phosphate products
3. Kazphosphate
I
n recent years, Kazakhstan has been knows how much ore there is in the entire
recognised as having some of the world’s Karatau deposit,” he continues, “but it is
largest deposits of natural resources. Its believed there could be as much as 45
phosphate deposits, discovered around billion tons in total, so we are operating on
70 years ago in the Karatau basin to just a small part of that. Estimated reserves
the south of the country, have been mined are 23 billion tons.”
since 1946 and are among the biggest in The mines are located close to Karatau
the world. In 1999 Kazphosphate, which and Zhanatas, two cities that have grown up
operates all the phosphate mining, almost exclusively around the industry. The
processing and manufacturing interests ore is crushed and sorted and put through
of the region, became a limited liability the beneficiation process at the Chulaktau
company, and began looking at ways of processing complex at Karatau, and the
modernising and diversifying. Karatau processing complex at Zhanatas.
Completely owned by local investors, Some percentage of mined phosphate
the business includes six is exported to Russia,
mines, of which two are Ukraine, Uzbekistan and
underground and four
are open pit, a range of
processing and chemical
$80 Turkmenistan, but the vast
majority is then transported
to a range of Kazphosphate
manufacturing facilities
in various locations and a Million manufacturing facilities
near Taraz some 200
privately owned railway kilometres away. These
Investment in new
network interconnecting sulphuric acid plant include elemental technical
them and linking with the phosphorus and its
national network. derivatives and mineral
Kazphosphate is in the enviable position fertiliser plants in Taraz, a detergent plant
of having an extensive phosphate resource in Shymkent and chemical plant producing
that is scalable for the future. “We have a MAP in Stepnogorsk.
total resource of 1.8 billion tons of phosphate Interestingly, Kazphosphate used to be
ore at our current mines,” says general the old USSR’s supplier of fertilisers for local
director Mukash Iskandirov. This works market and exports. Today, the company
out to give an estimated mine life of many continues to export the product into the
years and means that unlike most mining CIS countries as well as the European
companies there is a guaranteed availability Union (EU) and China. Meanwhile, the
of ore and no need to continuously invest main market for technical phosphates,
in exploration. Moreover, the company is particularly yellow phosphate, is almost
Employee working currently only exploiting a small part of the exclusively the EU.
in the mine resources available in the region. “Nobody The vision behind the programme
4. Kazphosphate
of ex pa n sion a nd
Since 1949, Hosokawa Bepex modernisation across the Hosokawa Bepex GmbH
Particle size enlargement has been Bepex’s core business
GmbH has been dealing with particle size company is to build a high- in Leingarten near Heilbronn since 1949. Compacting,
enlargement of fine disperse bulk material tech industry producing briquetting and pelleting with roll type presses entails
and since then sets standards in this business an increasing diversity of more than just the design of the machines: understanding
area. Due to the fact that we are constantly quality phosphor products specific applications and developing optimum solutions
for export to Europe and can only be achieved with expert experience in process
advancing our technologies in the areas engineering.
the surrounding countries.
of compacting, briquetting, extrusion, We are familiar with the problems in handling powders,
Exporting to Europe and
size reduction and plant construction on China, however, presents
dusts and slurries. Flakes, briquettes and pellets provide
the basis of the users’ specifications, our dust-free products, good flow and metering properties as
some interesting challenges, well as a higher bulk density. With particle size enlargement
technology leads the global market. Whether ones that Kazphosphate has the handling problems can be reduced substantially,
processing of pharmaceutical products, been working to resolve. whether filter dusts, fertilizers, metallic ore or metal chips
fertilizers, refractories, pigments, salts, ores, The very location of are processed. Project development, laboratory and pilot
Kazakhstan, in the centre plants as well as production are all under one roof at Bepex.
soda, filter dusts, etc. is concerned, you will
of the Eurasian landmass, www.bepexhosokawa.com
derive professional support from Hosokawa
ma kes long-d ista nce
Bepex GmbH.
logistics very difficult. “In the fertiliser
industry, large producers usually operate
their own port terminals from where they
can export around the world,” Iskandirov
explains. “Our nearest port is around
4,000 kilometres away, so our export
capability is limited to locations we can
reach by railway.”
Railways, therefore, form the backbone
of the company’s operations, and as long
ago as 1973 it constructed its own private
“We have a total
resource of
HOSOKAWA Bepex GmbH | P.O. Box 1152 1.8 billion tons
74207 Leingarten, Germany
of phosphate ore
Tel: + 49 (0)71 31 907-0
Fax: + 49 (0)71 31 907-309 at our mines” Technician inside the plant
E-mail: compaction@bepex.hosokawa.com
www.bepexhosokawa.com
5. Kazphosphate
railway network. Totalling some 250
kilometres of track, the railway links the
mines with each of the processing and
manufacturing plants and also with the
national and international rail network.
This private line stretches from Zhanatas
in the north to Taraz in the south and
west to Shymkent. The company owns
and maintains a fleet of 30 locomotives
along with over 930 specialist wagons
for products as diverse as yellow
phosphorus, sulphuric acid, phosphoric
acid, rock phosphate, ammonia, soda ash
and liquid pitch.
Several significant modernisation
projects have already been completed,
and are delivering a variety of quality
improvements, cost savings and
environmental benefits. One such is the Exterior view of Kazphosphate plant
introduction of a process to reduce waste
at the elemental phosphorus plant in sodium tripolyphosphate, and improved residues,” Iskandirov says. to the fertiliser plant in
120,000
Taraz. The sludge produced in the yellow the acid to food quality, opening new “To tap into this market Taraz, and due to come
phosphorus manufacturing process retains markets in the EU where the product is we have upgraded and online in the fourth quarter
high phosphorus content. The upgrades in great demand. modernised our yellow of this year. Utilising the
enable the plant to recycle the sludge
repeatedly to extract the phosphorus,
The EU is a lucrative target marketplace
for Kazphosphate, easily reached by rail,
phosphorus plant, a project
that was completed last
tons latest technology, the plant
will deliver significant
cutting sludge output to zero. and demanding increasing volumes of year.” The output capacity Annual output cost savings, not only
An upgrade completed at the purified yellow phosphorus. “Many of our clients of the plant continues to be capacity of yellow by reducing the need to
phosphoric acid plant last year has more in the EU are asking for a higher quality 120,000 tons per annum, phosphorus plant purchase sulphuric acid
than doubled the output of acid and product with a lower content of organic but 7,000 tons of that can on the market but also
now be purified to a higher by harnessing the heat
grade. “And we have buyers for all that generated in the production of sulphuric
“We have upgraded and modernised higher grade product, so we are in effect acid and using it in the plant, cutting energy
already sold out for this year.” consumption and reducing the impact on
our yellow phosphorus plant, a project There is a continuing pipeline of the environment.
improvements underway and in the The second major project currently
that was completed last year” planning stage. The largest is an $80 million underway will have impressive long term
sulphuric acid plant being built adjacent environmental and cost cutting benefits.
6. Kazphosphate
Gases produced during the production of “This will save us approximately $10.5
P4 elemental phosphorus were previously million per annum by reducing our natural
burned and vented into the atmosphere, gas requirement by 37 million cubic metres
but new technologies are being introduced a year. It’s a great economy on natural
to recycle the gas to fuel the process. “So resources, and will have a significant
far we have completed two furnaces, and impact on the environment.”
will be finishing all four by next year,” Another project slated for the future is
Iskandirov says. The projected cost for to recycle dust, a waste product of yellow
the project is $16 million, but the return phosphorus production, so it can be used
on investment will be surprisingly rapid. in the fertiliser plant. “This is a very new
“So far we have completed two
furnaces, and will be finishing all
four by next year”
The company exports its product via railway
project and we’re doing the feasibility and so on.” Still in the planning stage, the
study on it right now,” Iskandirov says. “But project is likely to enter the construction
the dust contains significant amounts of phase in 2015.
potassium, and we plan to use it to produce Kazphosphate, which employs some
NPK fertilisers.” 5,800 people across the business, is investing
The most important and also the most significantly to establish itself as a high-tech
ambitious project on the horizon is the organisation, supplying quality phosphor
construction of a new $170 million high- products to Europe, the CIS countries and
tech beneficiation plant near the mines in China. The benefits to the regional economy
Karatau. Comprising both suspension and around Taraz, Karatau and Zhanatas are
flotation processes, it will produce a much significant, and look set to grow.
higher grade output. “This is our most
expensive project to date and will produce
For more information about
3.5 million tonnes of new product with a Kazphosphate visit:
higher P2O5 content which we can then www.kazphosphate.kz
Mining truck fleet export or use to produce fertilisers, MAP
7. Kazphosphate
Samal 1 dst., 1 A, Almaty
050051, Republic of Kazakhstan
T +7 727 330-56-00
www.kazphosphate.kz
Produced by:
www.bus-ex.com
