Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 June/ corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The State Committee for State Property Management of Azerbaijan has allotted some 7 ha of land for the Azerbaijani Salt Production Union closed joint stock company to construct new salt iodination and refining plant, said Riad Gasimov, the deputy executive director of Azerbaijani Investment Company OJSC.
"This territory is sufficient to construct the plant and the operations of the plant are expected to be expanded in the future in line with the business plan," Gasimov said. Earlier some 5- 6 ha of land was expected to be allotted.
The plant and its infrastructure (pumps and others) for the collection of salt from the lake will be located in this territory. The salt will be collected from the section located in Masazir lake, but the salt is also expected to be brought from Turkmenistan for the refining in the future.
"The supplies from Turkmenistan may begin at least in a year and half after the construction of the plan, but it will be oriented on the domestic salt for the time being," the deputy director of AIC said.
The land has been transferred into the ownership of Azerbaijan Salt founded by Azersun Holding and AIC. According to Gasimov, the final cost of the project which will be determined after the allotted land is estimated. The final cost of the project was estimated at AZN10mln earlier. The estimation will begin next week. AIC plans to invest some $2.9mln to the project and it will hold 25% of shares in the authorized capital stock of Azerbaijani salt.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Evoterm has supplied the necessary equipment for the construction of the plant. The construction will be carried out by the Turkish Inova and it will be completed in a year.
Some 100 tons of white salt is expected to be produced in the plant a day with 30,000 tons annually.
The project Problems on Deficit of Iodine and Iodinated Universal Salt implemented with the support of UNICEF showed that the problem of the deficit of iodine is very urgent question.
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