On February 19th, the contract signing ceremony for Bozashakol copper concentrator project was held at NFC headquarters. President of NFC Wang Hongqian and vice-president Qin Junman signed the cooperation MOU and EPC contract with CEO of Kzakhmys Oleg Novachuk and general director of Kazakhmys Mian Khalil respectively, being witnessed by ambassador of Kazakhstan to China Nurlan Yermekbayev and director general of China Development Bank Wei Wei.

Mr. Luo Tao, president of CNMC and chairman of NFC, attended the ceremony and delivered the keynote address. He regarded Bozashakol project as a solid further step on the continuously deepening cooperation between the two parties, and believed the project would expend the scope of cooperation and realize a mutual growth, making greater contributions to Sino-Kazakh trade and economic development. Mr. Nuvachuk appreciated NFC’s skill, expertise and commitment in constructing the Bozymchak gold concentrator in Kyrgyzstan, the first project cooperation between NFC and Kazakhmys, and looked forward to its completion in this March on time. He believed that based on the completion of Bozymchak project, the future success of Bozashakol project would lead the two enterprises to further cooperation. On behalf of CDB, the major financing partner of the project, Mr. Wei expressed his confidence in the cooperation and granted his full support.

The Bozshakol project has a total contract volume of 486 million USD, including equipment and material supply, construction and installation, and is planed to complete on June 30th, 2015. It is located in the west of Pavlodar, 230km from Astana, and will mine 30 million tonnes of ore per year, employing around 1,500 in production on less than a 40-year mine life.