The second and third days of the 25th anniversary of the World Mining Congress: opportunities, investments, trends

On June 20, within the framework of the WMC, the "AMM" Congress was held. The event took place in a shortened format. The key topics of discussion were: Review of the current state of the mining and metallurgical industry in Kazakhstan, Investment opportunities of the country and Mineral reserves in the bowels of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Chairman of the Committee of Geology and Subsoil Use of the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akbatyr Nadyrbaev: "Today in Kazakhstan there are 7,621 deposits, incl. 3362 - are in the subsoil use, 3817 - are reserved. The total number of gold deposits - 343 deposits (reserves - 2.4 thousand tons), silver - 196 (50.7 thousand tons), copper - 125 (40 million tons), chromium - 17 (355 million tons), nickel - 41 (2 million tons) and others.

The largest subsoil users in the mining sector: Kazzinc LLP, Kazakhmys Corporation, ERG LLP, Kazchrome LLP, Altynalmas AK.

For the geological study is available about 1.25 million km2 of the territory of Kazakhstan ".

Eduard Kaplan, Academician of the International Transport Academy (ITA), Corresponding Member of the National Engineering Academy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, touched upon the theme of transport and logistics services: "Analysis of the specific influence of factors that negatively affect the implementation of planned volumes of transportation showed that 60% of the problems arise due to the failure of wagons. At the same time, only 15% of the infrastructure is underdeveloped, and only 10% of the ineffective interaction of the participants in the process. Therefore, in order to improve the organization of the transportation process, special attention must be paid to the chronic problem of LOADING, as well as to the problem of the interaction of the consignor/consignee with the connecting stations. In addition, it is possible to consider the introduction of a system for paying for excess parking hours during loading and unloading. Finally, the accumulation and analysis of statistics on the reasons for the non-fulfillment of daily transportation plans, the improvement of wagons delivery-cleaning contracts, the updating of the ETP, the strengthening of responsibility and control over its implementation will be very useful. "

A heated discussion also unfolded at the round table "The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan" On Subsoil and Subsoil Use "and" On Taxes and Other Mandatory Payments to the Budget ".

Baimishev Ruslan Nurashevich, Director of the Subsoil Use Department of the Ministry of Investments and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan: "The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan" On Subsoil and Subsoil Use, "which was adopted on December 27, 2017 and will come into force very soon - June 29, 2018, will ensure the replenishment of the mineral and raw materials base for sustainable economic development of the country, the creation of new projects, jobs. In particular, it reflects such conceptual innovations for our country as the Principle of the first application (the best world practice), Open access to geological information, Reduction of administrative barriers and licensing procedures, International standards for estimating reserves, Reducing exploration time, Ensuring the functioning of the market of junior companies and the possibility of attracting capital.

In this regard, in the near future, we expect to attract investments in subsoil use for geological exploration (an increase of 3-5 times); production growth - by 10-13%; GDP growth - by 1.9-2.5%, an increase in tax revenues, as well as the elimination of corruption risks ".

Technical sessions continued during the working days of the Congress.

A great interest among participants was caused by the session "Innovations and Industry 4.0", which discussed in particular topics such as integrated automation of mining enterprises, the use of automated unmanned technologies in the mining industry and digitalization and robotics in mining.

Vladimir Sysoyev, Head of Automation Division, Department of Underground Equipment, Epiroc Company (Sweden): "I have been working in this sector for almost 15 years, and I can say with confidence that the last 2-3 years are strikingly different from all previous years. Neither 5 nor 10 years ago it was not so. With each passing day, new technologies are becoming more accessible, and this affects, among other things, the mining sector. Young people, who are on a first-name basis with technologies, come to the industry and start actively implementing various innovative developments, automating processes.

Lately, we have been receiving more and more inquiries about what enterprises can do specifically. And it is especially gratifying that such countries as Russia and Kazakhstan today are on the front lines - that is, they are not lagging behind and not catching up, they are in the lead.

I will not bore you with numbers, I will only say that in the next 5 years we will receive absolutely other technologies related to extraction than those we are used to: we will see much less traumatic danger and much greater productivity, plus there will be more working young people in the industry, as the miner's profession will become more interesting and prestigious ".

A lot of discussions took place at the session "Ecology and Waste Processing". It touched upon the environmental problems of the mining and metallurgical complex and the perspective ways of their solutions, proposed options for the development of an environmentally friendly tailings system, as well as a new concept for the disposal of rock waste.

We would like to single out the session "World Business" as a separate line, organized by the brilliant partner of the WMC, EY Company. It discussed general market trends in the global mining industry, key business risks in the mining industry, future challenges for mining companies, and much more.

"Holding such a significant and large-scale event in Astana is a great achievement of our country on the way to building a world-class mining industry and a logical continuation of the work begun earlier to attract foreign investors, the preparation of a new Subsoil Code, and the successful continuation of cooperation with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative EITI) and other initiatives," said Victor Kovalenko, Regional Director of EY Services in Climate Change and Sustainable Development for Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine and Belarus in his speech.

James Metcher, partner of EY, the global leader in the practice of services in the field of Intelligent Automation, touched upon the risks faced by the mining industry in Digitalization. "Digitalization does not necessarily mean a loss of work for people as such. After all, it also provides alternative jobs and professions, which makes it possible to redistribute the place of employment of labor. It is also important to understand how the industry will fight for talents and keep them, to teach people new skills. This is important, taking into account the fact that most representatives of the millennium generation have an expected duration of work in one organization of three years, and that the educational community around the world is trying to keep up with the rapid changes that are taking place, and, accordingly, change approaches to learning. All this forces the organization to create new training mechanisms and give greater powers to employees."

At the session "Personnel for MMC", topical issues of social and labor relations in the industry were discussed, the system of personnel training in Russia was analyzed and the modern system of mentoring at enterprises of Corporation Kazakhmys LLP of dual training was presented as a model.

The session "Women in MMC" focused on the increasing role of the fair sex in the Mining and Metallurgical Complex around the world, and gender equality in the industry. Melinda Moore, Head of International Finance, Women in Mining, UK, spoke in her speech about the international program - 100 women leaders in the field of mining, allowing women from different countries to see successful sector representatives and believe in their capabilities.
Doctor of historical sciences Zinara Mukhina, head. the Department of Humanitarian Sciences of Starooskolsky Technological Institute (branch) of NIST "MISIS", shared excerpts from her research on the basis of some enterprises of the metallurgical industry of Russia, so to this day only 4% of men consider it proper to appoint the first leaders of the fair sex. At the same time, 41% of women believe that women will better cope with the dominant roles in enterprises, and 35% say that they do not have gender preferences for the leader.

The work was humming at the 24th international exhibition "Mining equipment, mining and processing of ores and minerals" - MiningWorld Central Asia and the 15th Kazakhstan International Exhibition Kazcomak 2018-Road and Industrial Construction, Communal Engineering.

This year the event attracted 260 companies from 24 countries, which is very symbolic. Among them, such leading representatives of the industry as Aramine, Atlas Copco, CFT Group, Dressta, MetsoMinerals, Mclanahan, FLSMidth, Sandvik Mining and Construction, Thrane, Outotec, Thyssenkrupp, Vist Group and many others.

The following national countries were represented at the exhibition: Australia, Austria (for the first time will demonstrate its national stand at the exhibition), Great Britain, Canada, China, Norway, Poland, Finland, France, Czech Republic. Leading mining and processing enterprises of Kazakhstan presented their expositions. Among them: Aktyubinsk Copper Company, KazMinerals, ERG, Kazakhmys, Kazzinc, which also have the status of the Partners of the event.
The exposition presented equipment and machines for surface and underground drilling, crushing and sorting of rock mass, loading and delivery works, tunneling, development of open fields and software solutions for MMC, as well as heavy dump trucks and other heavy transport equipment.

Thus, the company Epirok Central Asia presented new products in the line of drilling and loading equipment, KÖPPERN - roller presses for the mining and processing industry, NORDMEYER SMAG - mine auto equipment and drilling machines, RHEWUM - screening machines and vibrodistributors. I would also like to mention the stand of Passat Holding. Here, the system "Instrument for shaft signaling of microprocessor-based MASS" was demonstrated. This system ensures high safety of works at the mine and has no analogues in the CIS market. Also, for the first time in the Kazakh market, the latest technology for measuring ore mass was presented - a model of conveyor scales for non-contact measurement of ore mass.

At the booth of the same company DMT it was possible to obtain information about the latest achievements in the field of engineering, consulting and geotechnics in mining.

The participants of the exhibition had an opportunity to get acquainted with the novelties of equipment and machinery in the sphere of MMC, attend the presentations of Modern Equipment PJSC Uralmashzavod for Mining and Mining Equipment from South Africa, a seminar on innovative technologies for processing minerals by Outotec, and also go on a series of industrial excursions, the objects of which were the mines and the metallurgical plant of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the copper mine Bozshakol of KazMinerals and the Vasylkovskoye gold deposit JSC Altyntau Kokshetau.

The international investment conference Mines & Money Eurasia took place within the framework of the Congress. It was the event of the leading international series on attracting capital and investments in the mining sector.

Within the framework of the conference, various topics of relevance to the MMC sector were raised today. In particular, for example, a senior Resource Capital Funds employee, Adam Davidson, shared his research on "How to attract private equity to your mining project in Central Asia".

Director of Jolimont Global Mining Systems Adam Davidson talked about investing in innovation to transform the mining industry.

A lively interest was evoked by the report of the partner of GRATA International and the head of the Department of Subsoil Use (Almaty) Erbolat Yerkebulanov, who reported on what will change for the current subsoil users in the mining sector with the entry into force of the subsoil law.

In addition, there were discussed such topics as, for example, What metals should now be invested, How will the global financial markets and currency dynamics affect gold prices in 2018 and beyond, Main aspects and strategic goals when investing in a mining project, What impact will have China on the natural resources of Eurasia in the coming years and much more.
The Mines & Money Eurasia conference showed great interest both from large world companies, and from junior companies and specialized investment organizations with small capitalization, who are ready to invest in the development of the mining and metallurgical industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Congress ended its work with the official ceremony of handing over the "oil lamp", the symbol of the WMC, which gives the right to hold the next Congress.

The next Congress will be held in 2021 in Brisbane (Australia).

Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zamir Saginov, Majilis deputy Albert Rau, Chairman of the Committee for Industrial Development and Industrial Safety of the RK world Almas Batanov, chairman of the World Mining Congress Marek Tsala, chairman of the Organizing Committee of the World Mining Congress 2021 in Australia Hua Guo, Australian Ambassador to Russia and Kazakhstan Peter Tesch and CEO of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Stefan Durnik.

In his welcome speech, Marek Tsala noted the high level of organization and holding of the Congress in Astana, a rich work program, and thanked the organizers of the Congress.

In total, more than 2,389 participants, 1,047 companies from 50 countries of the world took part in the work of the 25th anniversary World Mountain Congress. Among them were members of governments, academics, employees of international specialized organizations, heads of mining enterprises, representatives of diplomatic missions.

The organizer of this large-scale event was the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the operator is the Kazakhstan exhibition company Iteca.