Solton-Sary Mine

The Solton-Sary deposit is located 355 km from Bishkek in the Naryn Oblast on the northern slope of the Kapka-Tash ridge, at absolute altitudes of 3500-3600 meters above sea level. The distance to the Balykchy railway station is 175 km, to the Bishkek-Torugart highway – 82 km. The field consists of 3 areas - Buchuk, Ak-Tash, Altyn-Tor. The total probable gold reserves at the deposit are about 20 tons.

The infrastructure of the Solton-Sary mine includes the Altyntor open-pit with gold reserves within the open-pit of 543.5 kg, a processing plant with a capacity of 100 thousand tons of ore per year and auxiliary buildings and structures.

In 1992, geological exploration work at the Altyntor site was carried out by the Issyk-Kul integrated geological exploration expedition. Test production of the site began in 1994 and continues to this day.

The commercial reserves of gold (C1+C2) for the Altyntor site were tested by the TMRC of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2005, and are 6.97 (geol.) tons of gold, with an average content of 3.48 g/t in an amount of 2981.1 kg of gold.

In 1997, mining operations at the Altyntor site were stopped, and the Altyntor open-pit was put mine on care and maintenance due to the inexpediency of production in the conditions of a constant reduction in gold prices and low end-to-end metal recovery. The open-pit was closed, but the processing plant of the Solton-Sary mine continued to work to clean up gravity tailings. By 2001, gold recovery had reached its maximum level at the gravity limit.

The Altyntor open-pit was put on care and maintenance from 1997 to early 2003. Rising gold prices and improved recovery rates contributed to the decision to resume mining operations at the Altyn-Tor site.

Ore processing is carried out at the plant using technology of gravity separation using Knelson concentrates. The concentrate is finished on concentration tables. The main product is gravity concentrate with a gold content of 2-2.5 kg per ton. Gold recovery into gravity concentrate is 73-75%. The gravity concentrate is then sent to another facility to recover gold at a level of 99%. More than 100 kilograms of precious metal are produced per year. The technology for extracting gold into gravity concentrate eliminates the use of chemical reagents and is environmentally friendly.