2025 became a landmark year for Kazakhstan’s mining industry. The two concentrator plants at KAZ Minerals Aktogay processed more than 60 million tonnes of sulphide ore over the year — a record not only for the company, but for Kazakhstan as a whole, DKNews.kz reports.
Such volumes have never before been achieved in the country and are considered exceptional even by global standards.
Two concentrators, one historic result
Each of Aktogay’s concentrator plants has a design capacity of 25 million tonnes of ore per year. In 2025, however, actual throughput significantly exceeded those levels:
- Plant No. 1 processed 30.7 million tonnes,
- Plant No. 2 processed 30.8 million tonnes.
Crucially, the increase in throughput had no impact on product quality — all planned performance indicators were fully met.
World-class technology at the heart of Aktogay
Aktogay is one of the most technologically advanced mining operations in the region. Its concentrator plants are equipped with:
- the largest cone crushers in the world,
- the second-largest semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill globally featuring a gearless drive,
- the largest gearless-drive ball mills currently in operation.
In Kazakhstan, equipment of this scale is used exclusively at KAZ Minerals operations.
A rare achievement on a global scale
The volumes processed at Aktogay are rare even internationally. Today, there are only around 25 mills of this type operating worldwide, and only a handful of them are capable of processing more than 25 million tonnes of ore per year.
Aktogay managed to surpass this threshold at both concentrator plants simultaneously.
What made the record possible
According to the company, the record was achieved not through extraordinary measures, but through systematic operational improvements, including:
- high equipment reliability,
- reduced downtime,
- continuous optimisation of production processes,
- careful selection of optimal liners for crushers and mills,
- and a range of engineering and technological enhancements.
KAZ Minerals is now considering ways to maintain these production levels and further improve efficiency through modernisation and ongoing technological development.
“A confirmation of our strategy”
Chairman of the Board of KAZ Minerals, Andrey Tretyakov, said the record reflects the company’s long-term approach:
“The record at Aktogay confirms the effectiveness of our strategy and the high level of professionalism of our production team. We consistently improve equipment reliability and production processes, enabling our operations to run steadily above design capacity. We intend to continue developing production based on the principles of sustainable and safe growth.”
