The Bank of China has agreed to provide up to $120m under the syndicated loan arranged by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the expansion of Shalkiya zinc and lead mine in Kazakhstan.
In June 2017, EBRD said that it was arranging $350m syndicated loan to the Kazakh mining company JSC ShalkiyaZinc.
JSC ShalkiyaZinc will use the funding to expand the Shalkiya zinc and lead mine in the Kyzylorda region, in addition to building new processing plant at the site.
EBR said that the expansion project will help address key sustainability issues by supporting the technological development of the Kazakh mining sector.
EBRD Loan Syndications Director Lorenz Jorgensen said: “The transaction is an excellent demonstration of the growing cooperation between the EBRD and the BoC which is expanding to more and more countries both banks are operating in”
In line with the privatization initiative launched by the Kazakh government in 2015, The EBRD-supported development project will prepare the Shalkiya zinc and lead mine for a possible privatization.
Bank of China Kazakhstan president Liu Wei said: “Bank of China Group is very pleased to partner with the EBRD and Samruk-Kazyna on the development of one of the world’s largest lead and zinc deposits, Shalkiya.”
Samruk-Kazyna management board chairman Umirzak Shukeyev earlier said: “The development of one of the world’s largest lead and zinc deposits, Shalkiya, will significantly contribute to the implementation of the new programme of industrialisation in Kazakhstan.”
Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna currently owns ShalkiyaZinc through the national mining company Tau-Ken Samruk.
Source: energy-business-review
