Kaftar Hona anthracite - InfoMine

OPERATION FOCUS – Tajikistan 

East Zeddi 

Coal 

Saddleback Corp was formed in 2004 and 

then established Saddleback Gold Corp 

(SGC) in Tajikistan. It has offices in central 

London and in Dushanbe, the capital city of 

Tajikistan. The objective of SGC has been to 

build a diversified mining and exploration 

company by securing interests in mining and 

exploration projects in Tajikistan with a focus 

on coal and gold. SGC senior management has 

over 12 years of project management and 

‘hands on’ mining experience in country. In 

August 2007 SGC obtained a holding in 

Komarob Ltd, a local company holding a 

licence to the Kaftar Hona section of the 

Nazar-Aylok anthracite deposit. 

The Nazar-Aylok anthracite deposit was 

discovered in 1940 and was explored and 

mapped by a geological expedition in 1973. 

Information on the deposit is described in a 

report by the Tajik Government in 1974, which 

states the total reserves in all categories as 174 

Mt. Twelve anthracite seams crop out in the 

area over a strike length of about 13 km. The 

coalfield has been cut in two by the Shikor- 

Hona river that has created a deep river valley 

between the eastern Shikor-Hona and western 

Kaftar-Hona sections of the deposit. 

Geology of Nazar-Aylok 

During the Soviet period detailed exploration 

of the Shikor-Hona deposit and less detailed 

*CEO and **Chief Mining Engineer, Saddleback Corp 

64 International Mining SEPTEMBER 2009 

Tabospin 

Gold 

Mienadu 

Coal Kaftar 

Rankul 

Gold 

Kaftar -Hona 

Anthracite 

exploration of the Kaftar-Hona deposit was 

undertaken. Numerous trenches and adits 

were excavated resulting in the declaration of 

34 Mt of Indicated reserves and a further 140 

Mt of Inferred reserves. All 12 seams vary in 

thickness along their strike length. Preliminary 

testing indicates that seam four contains the 

highest quality anthracite of the 12 seams. It 

has an average thickness of 8 m with the 

widest section of the seam 25 m in width. 

Present estimates indicate that 21 Mt of 

Indicated reserves and 51 Mt of Inferred 

reserves of anthracite lie within the present 

SGC mineral licence area. 

During 2009 and 2010 a new mapping and 

trenching program will be used to validate the 

Soviet data for Kaftar-Hona and build on the 

previous mapping work done in the 1970s. 

The access roads for the drilling program 

scheduled for 2010 will be constructed in 

2009. The drilling program will use a 

combination of core drilling and open-hole 

drilling in conjunction with geophysical 

borehole logging techniques. 

The Tajik coal industry 

In 2003, total coal reserves for Tajikistan were 

quoted as 3,000-4,000 Mt spread over 35 

deposits, with economically recoverable 

reserves estimated to be 670 Mt. Coal 

consumption peaked at between 600,000 and 

800,000 t/y during the early 1990s. Present 

coal production is satisfying around 30% of 

Alastair Ralston-Saul* and 

Dr. Jan Ketelaar** report on 

Saddleback’s rugged 

development of an anthracite 

project in Tajikistan and look 

forward to some interesting 

mining challenges 

Hona 

anthracite 

East Zeddi covers 1.2 km 2 and sits at an altitude of 

around 2,800 m. The deposit holds around 17 Mt of 

high calorific coal and is went into production shortly 

after the acquisition and production targets were 

exceeded in the 2008 season 

the potential market. In the medium and 

longer term the total market for coal is likely 

to rise further provided that producers are able 

to demonstrate the stability of their 

production. 

The quality of the anthracite in the 12 

seams being investigated by Saddleback varies; 

with the highest quality contained in seam 

four. The average calorific value of the Nazar 

Aylok anthracite is 8,000 kcal/kg, the fixed 

carbon is 85%, sulphur is less than 0.3% and 

the coal contains 2.7% inherent moisture. 

Anthracite has high fixed carbon content 

and can be used for the manufacturing of the 

carbon cathodes used in most aluminium 

plants. Tajikistan has the eighth largest 

aluminium smelter in the world. The plant has 

its own production facility which imports 

petroleoum coke from Ukraine as a raw 

material for the production of anodes. The 

smelter is planning to install a cathode 

manufacturing plant in 2010. The Nazar-Aylok 

anthracite is presently undergoing tests at the 

Tajik Aluminium plant to evaluate its suitability 

as a blending material for the production of 

anodes. The plant intends to manufacture 

cathodes and anodes for Tajikistan and Iran.

Construction of the access road to Kaftar Hona began 

in July 2007. During the winter of 2007-2008 several 

additional pieces of heavy equipment, including a 

Komatsu PC 450 excavator (pictured here), were 

purchased for work on the road construction 

The high quality of the anthracite in the 

Nazar-Aylok anthracite deposit has resulted in 

a considerable amount of interest from 

potential customers outside Tajikistan in India, 

Iran, Russia and Kazakhstan. 

Difficult access 

Some sections of road used to access the 

Nazar-Aylok deposit from Dushanbe have 

already been upgraded. The final sections of 

road to both the western and eastern sections 

of the deposit are 6-m wide mountain gravel 

roads which are being continuously upgraded 

and maintained. The distance from the rail 

head to the Kaftar-Hona Saddleback site is 184 

km, the distance to the Shikor-Hona site (not 

presently operated by Saddleback) is a total of 

260 km. 

Construction work on the Kaftar-Hona 

access road started in July 2007 when SGC in 

co-operation with its local partners planned 

the repair and construction of the mine road, 

the building of a main base camp and the 

installation of a weigh bridge. By early August 

2007 a Hitachi EX-550 excavator, a Uralmash 

excavator, four ChTX-Uraltrac dozers, a 

Komatsu GD 655 grader and two Kamaz 

dump trucks had been purchased and transported 

to site. A Mercedes 3024 truck was also 

ordered. The body of the truck was designed 

and built to SGC specifications. It was equipped 

to be able to service and repair earthmoving 

equipment in the field without the equipment 

having to return to the base camp. 

During the winter of 2007-2008 several 

additional pieces of heavy equipment were 

purchased for work on the road construction. 

These included; a Komatsu PC 450 excavator, 

a Komatsu D 155 dozer and an Atlas Copco 

ROC D7 blasthole drill. The ROC D7 was 

purchased and transported to site from the UK. 

Numerous culverts had to be installed where 

small streams cut across the path of the road. 

At higher elevations it was possible to 

construct the road above the line of natural 


springs but at lower elevations streams had to 

be crossed. The lack of suitable surfacing 

materials is also a challenge. In some areas river 

gravels are available for surfacing but along 

many sections other materials are used that are 

readily available. A crushing and screening 

plant is to be purchased that will enable the 

road to be maintained to a high standard. 

In 2008, the final 18 km of road to the 

deposit were pushed through, in addition to 

the work of improving and widening sections 

of the 46 km of lower road sections. The 

access road reached the Kaftar-Hona 

anthracite outcrops in the autumn of 2008 

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SEPTEMBER 2009 International Mining 65


and before the snows came in a small quantity 

of anthracite, approximately 2,000 t, was 

taken from the outcrops and scree slopes for 

testing in Novabad. 

The construction of a 30-man base camp, 

stores building and workshop were completed 

in 2008. The base camp facility also includes 

an 80 t fuel storage facility and a newly 

constructed 600 m² vehicle-maintenance and 

storage garage. 

Present and future mining 

A substantial volume of the Kaftar-Hona 

anthracite can be extracted using open-pit 

methods but without more detailed borehole 

exploration data it is not possible to determine 

the exact tonnage that will be economically 

recoverable by surface mining. In most cases 

the seams are dipping in the same direction as 

the mountain side. Initial mine planning 

indicates that an appropriate pit design can be 

achieved to meet production requirements to 

2014 with a maximum stripping ratio of 9:1. 

The main difficulties associated with the 

development and operation of open-pit 

operations in mountainous areas are the 

altitude and topography. The altitude means 

that for most of the winter the mining area is 

covered in snow and the steep topography 

requires care in the design, construction and 

maintenance of access roads. This is important 

for maximising access to the mine site 

particularly in spring and autumn. 

In the future the majority of the coal mined 

from this coalfield will be extracted using 

underground mining methods. The steep dip 

and thickness of the coal seams will require 

the use of mining methods such as the cut and 

fill method as used in the Lorraine coalfield 

(France). Other methods might also be considered, 

such as the Longhole Blasting method that 

was used in the Pennsylvania anthracite mines 

or a fully mechanised system such as that used 

at the Snowmass anthracite mine in Colorado. 

For the less steeply dipping sections of the coal 

seams a mechanised pillar extraction system 

that was used in the coal mines of Alberta and 

British Columbia is likely to be used. 

Access to the various coal seams can be 

made by driving adits in from the side of the 

mountain. This means that all developments 

can be driven into the mine, on the rise, from 

the lowest point. This provides a significant 

advantage, it means that the coal 

transportation system will always work with 

the benefit of gravity and the mine will be easy 

to dewater, reducing operating costs. 

Ventilation will also be simple to arrange by 

driving ventilation drifts at points higher up the 

mountain to connect the workings. 

66 International Mining SEPTEMBER 2009 

SGC intends to significantly increase 

output from East Zeddi during this 

year through construction of a new 

haulage road 

Accessing the more steeply dipping sections 

of the coal seams from the lowest point in the 

mine will allow the progressive development of 

long-hole blasting, cut and fill or mechanised 

mining methods to suit existing ground 

conditions and required levels of production. 

In the short-term the main focus of SGC is 

to complete the access road and to continue 

mining and exploration activities. Target 

production from the open-pit operation is 

100,000 t in 2010, rising to 200,000 t in 

2014. This tonnage can be increased rapidly to 

meet the anticipated demand indicated from 

India, Iran and Turkey. While SGC seeks to 

increase its customer base, a plan for an 

underground mining operation will be 

developed to mine this valuable resource. 

Other projects 

Tajikistan requires a supply of some 250,000 

t/y of coal which needs to be met and SGC 

hopes to be a major supplier of this much 

needed tonnage. 

In the summer of 2008 Saddlebrook entered 

into a joint venture with Sangalt to mine the 

rich bituminous coals of East Zeddi – with coal 

ready for immediate extraction. East Zeddi 

covers 1.2 km2 , sits at an altitude of around 

2,800 m and is 78 km north of Dushanbe. The 

deposit holds over 17 Mt of coal with a high 

calorific value of around 7,000 Kcal/kg. 

Production commenced shortly after the 

acquisition and production targets were greatly 

exceeded in the 2008 season. 

The company intends to significantly 

increase output from East Zeddi during this 

year. This will be achieved by constructing a 

new haulage road to the deposit that will 

allow trucks to pass without stopping plus it 

will lengthen the mining season, enabling the 

use of heavy snow removal equipment held in 

the company inventory. 

As touched upon earlier, Saddleback has 

both coal and gold projects in Tajikistan. Its 

Tabospin gold deposit, which is being 

developed in a joint venture with Tajik company 

Kulla Ltd comprises three known orebodies 

together with stretches of yet unexplored 

ground. Previously, limited exploration on the 

deposit resulted in a declaration of gold 

reserves (according to Russian classifications) of 

200,000 oz gold in the C2 category and 

750,000 oz gold in the P1 category. 

In 1997, 37 exploration trenches were 

excavated showing gold grades from 1.93 g/t 

to 8.76 g/t, mainly across good widths. A two 

year exploration drill program was organised 

to begin in the 2007 season with all 

trenching samples and drill core samples from 

the drill program to be assayed by Alex 

Stewart Assay and Environmental Laboratories 

in the Kyrgyz Republic. Results from the 

program have been encouraging and it has 

been recommended that further exploration 

drilling be carried out. 

SGC has submitted a licence application to 

the Tajik Government for the Rankul gold 

project and it currently awaits approval from a 

government presidium for the issue of the 

licence. It is located in the Pamir Mountains 

near the border with China at an altitude of 

4,000 m. Early stage exploration from the 

Soviet era identified the potential for around 

6.9 Moz of hard rock gold and an alluvial 

resource in excess of 1,200 kg of gold. The 

Rankul project is an exciting exploration and 

mining opportunity that will involve the 

simultaneous operating of two projects; alluvial 

gold exploration and recovery, and hard rock 

gold exploration. IM

Kaftar Hona anthracite - InfoMine

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