Uzbekistan, Tashkent, June 28 / Trend D.Azizov /
The Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC), based in the city of Almalyk, in Tashkent province, has announced another tender for turnkey tunnelling of the vertical mine shaft at the Samarchuk gold mine at the Kyzyl Olma field with the starting cost of $18.9 million.
As a source at the plant told Trend, the initial tender announced in late February this year has been declared invalid due to the lack of competitive bids.
Bids will are accepted until July 27 after which the results of the contest are planned to be summarised in August-September.
In 2007, AMMC completed the renovation of the existing mines at the Kyzyl Olma and Kochbulak fields in the Tashkent region for a total amount of $49.4 million. During the intensification of operations at the mines and reconstruction of the Angren gold ore processing plant, the ore processing capacity increased to 600,000 tons per year. The project was self-financed.
According to Goskomgeo of Uzbekistan, 41 fields of gold have been discovered in the country of which nine are being developed.
Almalyk MMC is the only copper producer in Uzbekistan and one of the largest manufacturers of non-ferrous metals in Central Asia. The AMMC accounts for nearly 90 per cent of silver production and 20 per cent of gold production in the country. The plant comprises two mining companies, two processing plants and two metallurgical plants.
The plant has the right to develop copper-molybdenum and lead-zinc ores in the area of Almalyk (Tashkent region). The AMMC's resource base includes copper-porphyry ores at Kalmakyr and Sary Cheku (Tashkent region) and the deposit of lead-zinc-barite ore Uch-Kulach (Djizzak).
The total volume of production is estimated to be more than $300 million annually.