01.04.2011, 14:49 10135

Kazakhstan to toughen laws to reduce waste in key mining sector

Kazakhstan will toughen laws to reduce waste in its key mining sector, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Almaty. April 1. Kazakhstan Today - Kazakhstan will toughen laws to reduce waste in its key mining sector, Kazakhstan Today reports.

Reuters reported that Kazakhstan will toughen laws to reduce waste in its key mining sector, a move that will require some of the world's leading metals miners to spend more on treating their waste.

Mr Nurgali Ashimov environmental protection minister of Kazakhstan told Reuters that the stricter laws, ordered personally by President Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev, would give mining firms between two and three years to work out and finance waste utilization plans, SteelGuru reported.

He added that "We have shifted the emphasis in our ecological policy. Collecting fines is not the most important task. Our task is to ensure that Kazakhstan's enterprises inflict as little ecological damage to the nation as possible."

Kazakhstan, a vast Central Asian nation five times the size of France populated by only 16.4 million people, boasts giant reserves of oil, gas and industrial metals.

Mr Ashimov said that the world's ninth largest country has stockpiled 22 billion tonnes of industrial waste, and every year adds another 600 million tonnes of tailings. Under current legislation, it is much more profitable for companies to pay fines on their tailings than to utilize them by investing in new technology and equipment.

He added that "If the proposed amendments are adopted, metallurgical companies' spending on the utilization of waste is set to rise. This will have an impact on all companies that have mine tailings, in particular on Kazakhmys, Kazzinc and ENRC."

Kazakhmys is the world's 10th largest copper miner, while Eurasian Natural Resources Corp is the world's largest ferrochrome producer and a major producer of iron ore, alumina and aluminium. Both companies are listed in London.

Glencore controlled Kazzinc, formed in 1997 by the merger of three lead and zinc plants, is the largest zinc producer in the former Soviet Union. It also mines precious metals and copper.

Mr Ashimov said that, under the changes now being debated in the lower chamber of parliament, mining firms that implement new programs to utilize waste would be exempt from fines currently payable on the new tailings created by their mines every year.

But he said those companies that fail to meet their obligations would face fines on the entire volume of waste amassed, which at some enterprises runs into tens of millions of tonnes. Miners now pay fines only on newly generated waste.

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