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A scene during the construction of the process plant, the Muruntau
gold heap leach project, Uzbekistan.
BATEMAN project and study experience in the Former Soviet Union.
Pile driving at the start of
construction at the Tomskneft gas treatment plant and compression station,
Leuginetskoye, Western Siberia.
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BATEMAN in Russia and Central Asia
BATEMAN first became involved in the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) in the early 1990s. Since then it has steadily built up
its CIS track record in studies and projects on mining, minerals, oil,
gas and energy. Besides supplying technology, BATEMAN often plays a
key role in arranging the finance required to make these projects feasible.
A scene during the construction of the process plant, the Muruntau gold
heap leach project, Uzbekistan.
In addition to its existing markets, BATEMAN seeks business opportunities
in developing regions with evolving economies where its expertise in
managing commercial and contractual risk gives it a competitive edge.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union a decade ago provided BATEMAN with
a vast market akin to that which it has served for many decades, i.e.
where clients recovering natural resources in remote and difficult locations
with minimal infrastructure require project management capabilities
and niche technologies.
Mining and minerals
With mining and minerals processing as its primary expertise, supported
by its experience in cold climate and remote location design and engineering,
BATEMAN's reference list of clients is growing.
Business commenced with a US$ 225M contract from Newmont Mining to provide
the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) for
the Muruntau gold heap leach project, Uzbekistan. This became one of
the largest gold heap leach operations in the world and was one of the
first engineering projects in the central Asian area of the former Soviet
Union to apply western gold heap leach technology on a large scale.
BATEMAN supplied the know-how to design and operate the plant.
Several other studies on gold followed the Muruntau project. BATEMAN
was subcontracted by Star Mining to prepare a feasibility / engineering
document on the infrastructure and process plant at Sukhoi Log below
the Arctic circle, some 6 000 km east of Moscow. The prime contractor
was Steffen, Robertson and Kirsten (SRK). Star Mining is part of a joint
venture with Lenzoloto, a local Siberian mining company, and other minor
partners.
The Sukhoi Log mine has the potential to become one of the biggest open
pit gold operations in the world and could mine between 100M to 120M
t/yr of waste and ore to produce about 39M ounces of gold in 30
years of operation. The ore reserves are contained within an area of
about 1 km by 2,5 km at a depth of between 100 m to 700 m. A conventional
processing plant was proposed, comprising a primary crusher, a stockpile,
SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) and ball mills, as well as thickening,
flotation, leaching and elution sections.
A scoping study was conducted for TVX Gold Inc. of Canada on the mining
of three gold ore bodies near the port of Petropavlovsk - Kamchatsky
on the peninsula of Kamchatka on the eastern boundary of Russia. SRK
was the overall consultant for this study, assisted by BATEMAN. It included
an underground mine at the ore body at Rodnikovoe, about 100 km south
of the port of Petropavlovsk - Kamchatsk; a mixed underground and surface
mining operation at Asacha, about 40 km south of Rodnikovoe; and an
underground operation at Zolotoe, approximately 300 km north of Petropavlovsk
-Kamchatsky.
BATEMAN's role was to prepare a conceptual design for the process plants
to handle between 100 000 and 250 000 t/yr each. One option considered
was to supply the plants as mobile modular units because of the anticipated
short lives of the mines. BATEMAN has considerable experience supplying
modular plants for permafrost or severe winter conditions and these
units would easily cope with Kamchatka's winter temperatures of
around -20°C.
A feasibility study was recently completed for Nelson Gold at the Jilau
open pit property in Tajikistan. This was for a 5M t/yr plant utilizing
gold heap leach / carbon-in-pulp (CIP) technology. At the mine at Taror
BATEMAN is providing construction management, design and testing as
well as basic and detail engineering services to increase production
to 200 ton/hr.
Most recently BATEMAN was awarded a feasibility study for the Varvarinskoye
project, a gold / copper project near Kustanai in Kazakhstan. The client
is Kazakhstan Minerals Corporation. Bateman Americas is the primary
contractor with subcontracts being awarded to Mintec for ore reserve
evaluation and mine planning, Knight Piésold for the study of the tailings
facility and hydrogeology, and AATA for the environmental impact study.
ELB-UK is providing support services to Bateman Americas for the management
of the metallurgical test-work being conducted at the Cambourne School
of Mines and to pricing the equipment in Europe. The feasibility study
is due to be completed in April 1998.
BATEMAN has been promoting its diamond capabilities and is currently
conducting negotiations on several new diamond project developments
in the CIS for projects to provide diamond processing plants into the
Arctic region.
BATEMAN's activities in Russia have not been a one-way flow of technology
into Russia, as Russian technology has been identified which can be
used in other countries to convert raw materials into marketable commodities.
A good example is the Russian and Ukrainian technology used successfully
to obtain high quality magnesium from Carnallite extracted from the
Dead Sea.
Oil, gas and energy
BATEMAN has considerable expertise in gas processing which, coupled
with its other skills, is providing project opportunities in the CIS.
A front-end and detailed engineering and equipment procurement project
on a gas processing facility was undertaken for AOA Tomskneft near Strezhevoy
in Western Siberia. The facility includes two 20 000 hp gas turbine
driven centrifugal compressors and a turbo-expander plant for the recovery
of natural gas liquids. BATEMAN made the financing arrangements for
this US$ 100 M contract.
BATEMAN has now been awarded the construction contract for the AOA Tomskneft
compression station and work with its pre-selected subcontractor, GAMA
Industries A.S. is under way.
Engineering and project management services are being provided to develop
Ural Petroleum Inc's oil and gas production capacity. BATEMAN will assist
in evaluating several projects annually and will design, procure and
construct the demonstration and production units on the selected properties.
BATEMAN has a US$ 180M contract from Gas Infrastructure Projects for
a series of lump sum turnkey projects for the gas industry in Turkmenistan,
which includes new and modernized booster compressor stations, rehabilitated
and modernized gas processing and treatment plants and the retrofit
of control instrumentation. Cost effective rehabilitation will be made
possible by conducting detailed studies of the existing equipment, test
runs and computer simulations. The result will be that exports via the
existing main gas pipeline in Turkmenistan to consumers in Uzbekistan,
Ukraine and Russia will be increased by a factor of four.
Please contact Dr Stephen Meijers, Chief Executive, Bateman Minerals
& Metals, on +27-11-899-2468, or email info@batemanengineering.com
for more information..
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