Semyon Zakharyan

Semyon Zakharyan is Project Manager at Leopard Invest, where he applies two decades of metallurgical research and plant experience to the group's hydrometallurgical projects.

He was previously Chief Technologist of the pilot hydrometallurgical plant at Kazakhmys Smelting in Zhezkazgan, responsible for implementing the hydrometallurgical processing technology for crude copper concentrates and for commissioning the facility. Before that he led the research laboratory at KazHydroMed, directing laboratory and pilot-industrial testing on concentrates from the Zhezkazgan, Sary-Oba and Akzhal deposits — nitric-acid leaching, sorption and solvent recovery of copper, rhenium and silver, and electrowinning of copper and silver.

His earlier career spans production and engineering roles at the Balkhash copper smelter's sulphuric acid complex and in the chemical industry in Russia. He holds a Doctor of Technical Sciences in metallurgy of ferrous, non-ferrous and rare metals from Ural Federal University, a Candidate of Technical Sciences from the Gintsvetmet Institute, and an engineering degree in chemical technology from Yaroslavl State Technical University.

He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed papers indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, a contributed monograph chapter, and multiple Kazakhstan patents covering rhenium recovery and the complex processing of sulphide concentrates and oxidised copper ores.