Uzbekistan, Tashkent, June 21 / Trend D. Azizov /
The Uzbek Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC) and the Russian company Western Ural Machine Building Group have concluded a contract to construct an underground mine for gold extraction from the Kyzyl Olma field (Tashkent region), a source in the AMMC told Trend on Thursday.
According to the source, Western Ural Machine Building won the tender for the vertical turnkey mine shaft contract at the Samarchuk site of the Kyzyl Olma field in February 2013. The starting value of the work is $18.9 million and the company will construct an underground mine.
As reported earlier this year, AMMC started building an underground mine with a capacity of 200,000 tons of ore per year at the Samarchuk site.
The project worth $74 million will be funded through AMMC's equity of $35 million, a loan from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan (FRDU) for $14.2 million and loans from Uzbek banks for a total amount of $24.8 million. It is planned to be constructed by the end of 2015.
Almalyk MMC is the only copper producer in Uzbekistan and one of the largest manufacturers of non-ferrous metals in Central Asia. AMMC accounts for nearly 90 per cent of silver and 20 per cent of gold production in the country. The plant is composed of two mining companies, two processing plants and two metallurgical plants.
The total volume of production is estimated at more than $300 million annually.
AMMC completed reconstruction of the existing mines in the Kyzyl Olma and Kochbulak fields in the Tashkent region at a total value of $49.4 million in 2007.
At present, AMMC is implementing a number of investment projects on modernisation and reconstruction of existing production, expansion of the resource base and construction of new facilities with a total project cost of about $670 million.
According to the Uzbek State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources, to date around 41 gold fields have been discovered. Around nine are being developed.