IBM Helps Altyntau Resources Find Gold in Kazakhstan

             IBM Helps Altyntau Resources Find Gold in Kazakhstan

Kazakh Gold Producer to Improve Gold Yield with IBM Business Analytics

PR Newswire

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, July 20, 2012

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) has
announced that it is working with JSC Altyntau Resources, a leading gold
producer in Kazakhstan, to provide a new business analytics system to help the
company to improve gold yields and increase the profitability of its
operations.

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The new system will enable the gold producer to centralize and quickly analyze
data about its mining operations. It includes a dashboard of important
information enabling the company's management team to make informed decisions
about which ore to mine and which extraction processes to use to achieve the
best return on investment. Once the project is complete, JSC Altyntau
Resources will be able to speed up its annual financial planning cycle from
two months to two weeks and ensure that investors are kept informed on the
company's operations and forecasts.

JSC Altyntau Resources runs several mines in Kazakhstan, including the large
Vasilkovskoye gold ore deposit near the city of Kokshetau in the north of the
country. Though the deposit was first mined in the 1960s, production had to be
abandoned at various times over the years due to the relatively low grade of
the ore – only of 2.2 grams of gold per tonne. However, the construction of a
new gold recovery plant in 2009 and the recent deployment of modern
technologies have led once again to full-scale, commercial production. Today,
Vasilkovskoye is one of the largest gold mines in the world.

"From the very moment of our company's inception, we set ourselves the goal of
becoming industry leaders by using the latest technologies and approaches to
increase gold yields, decrease operational expenses and ensure maximum
profitability," said Kazhibekov Ilyas, Head of Planning and Financial Analysis
at JSC Altyntau Resources. "IBM's business analytics technologies will give us
the ability to quickly react to changes in gold production and make informed
decisions about our mining operations."

Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, is home to 4 percent of world gold
deposits making it the seventh largest reserve in the world. The Kazakh
government plans to increase gold production to 70 tonnes by 2015 – from 16.6
tonnes in 2011. However, it is estimated that only 40 percent of Kazakhstan's
gold reserves is economically exploitable using current extraction technology,
placing pressure on gold mining companies to use the latest technologies to
achieve maximum yield. 

"Business analytics systems help leaders understand and draw valuable insights
from the data within their organizations," said Adam Dosymov, Head of IBM in
Kazakhstan. "In the highly-competitive gold mining industry this is crucial
for effective cost management and informed decision making. It can mean the
difference between whether your operations are commercially viable or not."

The implementation of the new system based on IBM Cognos software will take
place over several phases managed by IBM's local business partner GMCS. The
first phase covers the company's financial planning processes in accordance
with International Financial Reporting Standards including assets,
liabilities, income, expense accounting and investments. The next stage will
include HR department planning and labor costs.

JSC Altyntau Resources was established in 2011 and employs over 4,200 people
in gold mining and production. The Gold Recovery Plant at the Vasilkovskoye
deposit is the biggest gold mining asset of the company constructed in
accordance with world standards. The plant is capable of processing up to 8
million tonnes of ore and producing 550-650 koz of gold per annum.

IBM has a branch office in the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan. IBM recently
announced the opening of 10 new branch offices across Russia and the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as part of a major initiative to
capture regional business growth and increase its presence in the fastest
growing markets in the world.  The move is part of an incremental investment
of $6 million that IBM will make in 2012 in the Russia and CIS region to
expand its operations and increase its footprint to 22 offices. IBM will also
double its staff in the Russian regions and strengthen its business partner
network across Russia/CIS to over 4,000 partners this year. IBM currently has
branches in the following cities in the region: Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Ufa,
Khabarovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Krasnodar, Kiev
(Ukraine), Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine), Kharkiv (Ukraine), Donetsk (Ukraine),
Almaty (Kazakhstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). 

ABOUT JSC Altyntau Resources

For more information about JSC Altyntau Resources, please visit:
www.altyntau.com

ABOUT IBM

For more information on IBM, please visit:
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/index.wss
For more information on IBM Growth Markets please visit:
https://twitter.com/#IBMGrowthMkts

CONTACTS

Alexandra Kisel
IBM Media Relations, R/CIS
+7 (985) 761 16 86
alex.kisel@ru.ibm.com

Anastasia Tolstopyatova
IBM Media Relations, R/CIS
+7 (985) 761 16 86
Anastasia.Tolstopyatova@ru.ibm.com

Jonathan Batty
IBM Media Relations, Growth Markets Unit
+ 48-693-93-5403
Jonathan.Batty@pl.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

Website: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/index.wss