Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Nov. 23 / Trend D.Azizov /
The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC, Almalyk, Tashkent region), one of the largest non-ferrous metal producers in Central Asia and the only copper producer in Uzbekistan, has completed the reconstruction and expansion project of the Kalmakyr mine worth $122.2 million, a source in government circles told Trend on Friday.
The AMMC launched a project for the reconstruction of the Kalmakyr mine in 2010. The project envisaged construction of a fourth reloading link and reconstruction of railway tracks at the mine, as well as the purchase of additional mining and transport equipment.
According to the agency's interlocutor, as a result of the project's completion, ore production increased four million tons per year.
The project was financed by a loan from the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development to the amount of $63 million and from local commercial banks and AMMC equity.
Kalmakyr mine is located at the base of a porphyry copper deposit of the same name which has been developed since 1954. Its capacity is 27 million tons of ore a year (before reconstruction). Apart from copper, there are also gold, silver, molybdenum, selenium, tellurium and rhenium found at the deposit.
The transport process is carried out in a combined way. The ore is delivered to the processing plant in railroad dump cars to a distance of eight kilometres. The overburden is transported by rail to dumps.
More than 20 excavators and 20 drilling rigs are involved in the loading of rock mass at the mine.
About 90 per cent of silver and 20 per cent of gold production in the country falls to the share of AMMC. The plant consists of two mining companies, two processing plants and two metallurgical plants.
Copper-porphyry ore fields at Kalmakyr and Sary-Checku (Tashkent region) and the lead-zinc-barite ore deposit at Uch Kulach in the Djizzak region is the resource base of AMMC.
The total volume of production is estimated at more than $300 million a year. The complex exports about 60 per cent of the output.
This year AMMC planned to increase copper production by five per cent compared to 2011, up to 96.000 tons.