OOO ALMAZINTECH Consulting and Engineering has been engaged in active operation in the field of mining and geological services for diamonds and gold for more than 8 years. The company operates along the whole range of services for mining projects – from geological exploration and design to operating support rendered to ongoing business in the field of diamonds and gold. Valery Kondratyev, CEO of ALMAZINTECH, answers the questions asked by Rough&Polished.
Whom are you working with, Mr. Kondratyev?
ALMAZINTECH is a consultant on technical issues for some of the diamond-mining companies, such as ZAO ALROSA, OAO ALROSA-Nyurba, OAO Severalmaz, some diamantaires (Lev Leviev, for instance), as well as for some gold-mining companies, as for example, OAO Polyus Gold and Swedish Central Asia Gold AB.
Just some of the jobs done by the company during the last two years include the following:
1) Geological expert assessment of gold, coal, and polymetallic projects pursued by Nafta-Metall (Russia).
2) Integrated expert evaluation of gold mining facilities of Zolotaya Zvezda (Russia).
3) Technical and economic project development efficiency assessment of the Trevozhnoe Zarevo gold fields for Trans-Siberian Gold Pls (Russia).
4) Expert assessment of the Luia diamond project and Telelo-Mavoio copper project in Angola; integrated expert assessment of the Cacoala diamond project in Angola.
5) Expert assessment of the Nalunak gold project in Greenland (Denemark).
6) Technical and economic feasibility substantiation of gold mining projects Chertovo Koryto (Polius Gold) and Taseyevskoye (Rusdragmet), Russia.
7) Registration of the Vasin gold ore deposit with the State Committee for Reserves for the Orenburg Mining Company (Russia).
8) Supplementary geological survey of the Larjo gold deposit (Liberia).
9) Geological exploration of the Karalon gold ore deposit, OOO RudKaralon (Russia).
ALMAZINTECH owns two mining projects for gold ore in the Kyrgyz Republic where the company is engaged in geological exploration having proved commercial reserves on one of them. We are mining gold on our alluvial gold field in Kyrgyzstan.
At the Bishkek Factory of Experimental Mining and Geological Equipment we started to manufacture concentration equipment based on our design.
ALMAZINTECH is a minority shareholder of some the gold mining companies in Russia and abroad.
In 2010, together with our partners we established a servicing geological exploration company and we are now offering our customers a range of services in exploring deposits and their preparation for development using modern geological equipment, well-drilling techniques, methods of surveying, prospecting and geological data processing to bring the obtained materials to the State Committee for Reserves to prove their commercial value.
Attracting investments into mining projects is a separate line of our business. Due to our company 12 mining projects in Russia and the CIS countries obtained investors and are being developed. Now ALMAZINTECH together with its partners is accumulating a fund of direct investments as a tool to finance gold mining projects.
It is known that you are engaged in research and advanced development. What is its essence?
In team with its partners ALMAZINTECH is developing and introducing new Russian technologies into the industry, first of all in the field of mining. We received five patents in the past years. I will give you just a brief description of two such projects:
1. In 2009, we completed the design of an automated pilot plant for finishing diamond concentrate under 3 mm in size ordered by ALROSA-Nyurba. Now we are preparing initial data to make an industrial model. So far we have not performed full-scale physical and economic assessment of the influence produced by contingency situations and possibly resulting in destroyed diamond crystals. For this reason the customer is mulling over any further funding our work.
2. Currently the transition from open-pit kimberlite mining to underground mining turns to be a natural development in diamond mining both in Russia and in other countries of the world. We have worked out an innovative technique for underground development of kimberlite pipes which does not require mixtures containing expensive cement to fill in spent mine workings and is superior to ALROSA’s technologies in economic and technical terms.
What are the latest works on mineral beneficiation which you would like to mention?
In recent years, Almazintech has developed a technique patented as "The method of separation of diamond-bearing materials" based on a large number of experimental findings and currently the work is underway to compile a program for its implementation.
Since 2006, Almazintech has been monitoring the processing plant of the Lomonosov Mining and Concentration Works belonging to Severalmaz. We carry out scientific research, give technological consultations, and develop and test new technological solutions in team with the staff of the processing plant to improve the diamond ore beneficiation process.
Now we suggest to Severalmaz to check one idea which is in our opinion may turn perspective – to develop a technique making possible to precipitate suspended matters taken from tailing pulps. If our assumptions prove to be true, this technique will permit to brighten re-circulated water more efficiently.
In 2008, together with the Atom-Innovations Center of the ROSATOM State Committee we established OOO GeoTestService, a research and production enterprise carrying out jobs to determine properties and technological qualities of materials (ledge ores, alluvial and technogenic mineral deposits) for radiometric concentration. This technique permits to decrease the amount of ore fed for breakage and subsequent beneficiation down to 50%.
Foreign projects occupy a special place in the business activity of Almazintech. In what field is your business activity most obvious?
For many years the majority of our staff worked in Angola at the projects of Catoca, Camachia-Camajico, Cacolu and others and gained a vast experience in implementing mining projects in tropical climate and difficult economic and political conditions. We have accumulated a big data bank of technological parameters related to mining and beneficiation while developing primary and alluvial diamond deposits, which are quite specific as compared to what we have in Russia. This information can be used in designing and constructing new mining facilities in any African country.
In recent years, Endiama, Angola’s state-owned diamond company, offered licenses for diamond mining in the country’s areas where little or no geological prospecting was done and no commercial kimberlites or placer deposits existed. In such cases, investors have to invest in geological studies of the territory with no guarantee whatsoever that a commercial deposit will be discovered. Almazintech has a considerable archive of geological materials with diamond-bearing characteristics of the territory and a tried-and-true method for preliminary assessment of the diamond potential of an area, both for kimberlites and placers.
These methods are based on the integrated analysis of the available and archived geological, structural, tectonic and geomorphological data in the areas of interest, whose territory is studied by space images of regular and high resolution, by way of analyzing the activities of artisan diamond miners, etc. For instance, by request of the Russian Diamond Group we analyzed 16 areas offered for licensing having chosen three most promising ones. The Group financed the studies of one such area, Mualengue. The first phase of the geological studies of the area resulted in indications pointing to the existence of several kimberlite pipes in the area, so the work is proceeding. Similar activities were carried out in other areas, for instance, in Luia, Xingufo, Chegi, and Cacoala.
A similar analysis of prospectivity for concessionary areas was performed at the request of the ESN Group in the territory of the West-African Craton within the boundaries of Guinea and Sierra Leone. In spite of the publicity campaign positive about investment opportunities in that area, our experts did not recommend to make investments there due to the low possibility of finding commercial deposits. The same type of studies was conducted in some areas in Venezuela and Guyana, in Latin America, where we gave a positive assessment of the investment potential.
What do you think about the development of your company and in what way may the global financial crisis affect its activity in 2008-2010?
The market is abandoned by “fund” investors. To a great extent these players did not really develop any projects – they did not invest into geological prospecting or in fixed capital or in industrial operations. They only created “beautiful packing” to attract funds from the stock market. Such projects are doomed.
Almazintech experts have always been focused on full-fledged development of mining – from carrying out geological surveys to turning out finished products. And behind us we have hands-on experience in starting up such projects in Yakutia and Africa. Therefore, I think that in a sense the crisis will be useful for our sector of business – there will be less virtual mining projects and more real projects. Professional approach will dominate. And it means that services of such companies as ours will be even in greater demand from serious partners.
Vladimir Teslenko for Rough&Polished
