Shaft Sinkers secures £37 million Kazchrome contract Mining and Ores

Shaft Sinkers has won a £37mln ($62 million) contract to dig up the vertical shaft at Kazchrome’s Skipovaya project in Kazakhstan.

Since last year, talks over the details have been underway but Shaft Sinkers will now begin work next month on a 8m diameter skip shaft to a final depth of 1,453 metres.

The shaft, which is likely to be done in 2018, will access a ferrochrome ore-body which will be mined to deliver ore to the Donskoy processing plant in the Aktujbinsk region of Kazakhstan.

Kazchrome provides ferroalloys to steelmakers in the Americas, Europe, and Central and South-East Asia.

According to Alon Davidov, Shaft Sinker’s chief executive - We are very pleased that the contract had been finalised as it makes up both an endorsement of the company’s exceptional shaft sinking capabilities and an impressive new confrontation in terms of commodity and country. We aims to form a long term and successful cooperative relationship with Kazchrome as we execute on the project.

This contract resulted in some good news in a year that has watched Shaft Sinkers fighting the effects of the sustained strike throughout the platinum industry in South Africa, a legal battle with Eurochem and financial pressures.