History, Translated from Russian
The history of Kutessay II is closely connected with the study of the whole Aktyuz ore field. Workings by ancient miners, dating to the 10th Century, were very widespread in the form of mining, the remnants of smelting furnaces and slag heaps. In modern times, the Aktyuz deposit was known to local hunters. For a short period in 1927, Arhangelsky private co-op mined oxidized and semi-oxidized ores here. In the same year the Aktyuz ore field was prospected among other poly-metallic prospects of Northern Kyrgyzstan by I.I. Bezdeka, and in 1928 by B.A. Fedorovich, who described it under the name of “Small Kemin deposit”. Both geologists recommended this area for exploration. A.A. Amiroslanov’s prospecting expedition in the Trans-Ili Alatau in 1930 recommended detailed exploration of Aktyuz, and in 1931, “Kazakhstan polymetals combine” launched a deposit exploration program. This work was led by I.P. Novatsky and Y.P. Ivenson until 1933, and by F.S. Tolchinskaya from 1935-1937. Utilizing I.S. Volynsky materials, Tolchinskaya prepared the first description of Aktyuz’ mineralogical composition and made three reserve calculations. SRC of USSR first approved reserves on 01.01.1936.
In 1935, F.I. Wolfson from the former USSR Academy of Sciences and A.M. Shtern from “Nickeltininvestigation”, studied and sampled the Aktyuz ore field, establishing the mining potential of tin mineralization. In 1938, the Central Asian expedition commenced exploration work on Kutessay I and Kuperlisay fields looking for tin. In 1939, the work was continued by the newly organized Kyrgyz Geological Survey. In the process of L.L. Kravchenko’s studies of the Kuperlisay deposit, thorium mineralization was found. Due to the lack of interest for thorium at that time, the work at Kuperlisay was stopped in 1940. In 1946, the thorium exploration program was resumed and completed in 1949. The program was carried out from 1946-1947 under the leadership of D.N. Elyutin and from 1947-1949 by S.A. Denisov. Substantial reserves of low grade thorium ores were calculated as result of this program. During the 1946 to 1951 period, additional exploration work on thorium was conducted at Kutessay II and Aktyuz. Mining at Aktyuz was refocused to producing thorium concentrate.
The Kutessay II deposit was discovered in 1943 while studying a biotite hornfeld surface outcrop with poly-metallic mineralization. The exploration program began in 1944 and resulted in delineation of poly-metallic mineralization. In the same year ferro-thorium and high radioactivity was discovered at Kutessay II. The work was performed under the leadership of N.D. Tikhomirov and ended in 1951.
As a result of exploration work, two reserve calculations of the deposit were carried out. The first dated 01.01.1947 (authored by S.A. Denisov and A.N. Tikhomirov) was not approved by VKZ USSR due to the weak prime data on thorium mineralization. The second calculation of reserves dated 01.01.1951 (authored by N. Tikhomirov and P.I. Braiko) was based on complete set of exploration data. The reserve calculations were done separately for two prime metals: lead and thorium. For the lead ore body, zinc, silver, tin, molybdenum, copper, thorium and rare earths were included as secondary metals. For the thorium ore body, lead and rare earths were included. At that time, thorium and rare earth were classified as cut-off grade reserves as there was no industrial application for them.
There was no exploration on Kutessay II from 1951-1953. In 1953, to mine poly-metallic ore reserves, the Aktyuz mine opened a development area at horizon VI (2353 m) and performed a horizontal drilling and vertical grab sampling. That work resulted in discovery of the “North” ore body at Kutessay II with rich polymetallic and rare earth mineralization. Drilling from the horizon VI established rare earth mineralization to the depth of 200 meters.
In 1956, due to demand for rare earth materials, the “Sredaztcvemetrazvedka” holding organized the Kutessay Exploration Group with the objective of re-sampling for rare earths, metallurgical tests for recovery, reserves calculations and determination of the overall prospects for the rare earth mining for the whole Aktyuz ore field. By 1959, the Kutessay II program was complete and the results were presented in the report including calculation of reserves which was reviewed and approved by USSR SRC on 01.01.1959 (Doroshenko N.I., Braiko P.I., Kharchenko A.D., Turovsky, S.D., 1959).
