Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill

The Chatkal Antimony Processing Mill is the ore-dressing plant of the Chatkal Chemical Smelting Complex in the Sary-Bulak District of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ), about 30 kilometers south-west of Talas. It crushes, grinds and concentrates stibnite ore by froth flotation, mainly ore from the satellite mines of the Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine, such as the Kemer Antimony Mine and the Kyzyl-Jar Antimony Shafts. It stands on the floor of the Urmaral gorge at the end of the Chatkal rail siding, about 6 kilometers from the Sary-Bulak spur, with the smelter above it. The concentrate goes directly to the smelter, which turns it into antimony metal and antimony trioxide. Ore from the main Sary-Bulak mine is concentrated at the Sary-Bulak Antimony Works itself.^[1]

The mill was commissioned with the smelter in 1964 and was enlarged under the 1971 Antimony Expansion Directive. It was privatized with the rest of the Chatkal complex in 1994. Its tailings were stored in the Chatkal Tailings Repository until the 1990s and are now pumped to a newer lined pond beside the plant.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ Iradi Antimony and Rare Metals Combine (2024). Annual Report 2023. Talas.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.