Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Aug. 30
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
The Western-Ural Machine Building Concern (ZUMK, Russia) will complete its part of work within the framework of the second stage of construction of Dehkanabad potash fertilizer plant (Kashkadarya region, south of Uzbekistan) in November 2015, Uzhimprom JSC told Trend.
The representative of the company said that this will make it possible to commission the second phase of the plant until the end of 2015.
In 2011, Uzhimprom signed contracts with Russian company Western-Ural Machine Building Concern (ZUMK) and the Chinese CITIC International Cooperation worth $238.6 million.
The Russian firm will construct a mining complex to produce 1.4 million metric tons of selwynite ore and use telpherage to transport 2.1 million metric tons of ore per year as well as having an external power supply worth $122.3 million.
Work on the construction of the mining complex has almost been completed, the volume of work on the telpherage and external power supply is 70 percent done, according to Uzhimprom.
The construction of the second stage of Dehkanabad plant worth $254.5 million and with a capacity of 400,000 metric tons of potash per year began in 2011. In addition to ZUMK, the implementation of the project involved the Chinese CITIC, which completed the construction of a processing complex worth $116.3 million in the first quarter of 2014 as part of the project.
Contract with ZUMK was not implemented as planned "for technical and financial reasons," the source said without elaborating.
The source went on to add that at present, Uzhimprom and ZUMK prepared an additional agreement to extend the term of the contract till the end of 2015.
The project is financed by credits from the Chinese Exim Bank to the sum of $110.5 million, a loan from the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development for $128.1 million, as well as Uzhimprom SJC at $16.1 million.
The Dehkanabad potash fertilizer plant with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons of potash per year was commissioned in 2014. Contractors of the construction worth $123.7 million were ZUMK and CITIC.
The commissioning of the second stage of the plant will triple its capacity - up to 600,000 metric tons of potash per year.
The plant was built on the basis of the Tyubetagan potash field in the Kashkadarya region on the border with Turkmenistan. The total industrial reserves of the field make up 400.2 million metric tons of ore containing potassium chloride at a level of 36.8 percent. The most promising part of the field with reserves of 200 million metric tons of ore was located in the territory of Uzbekistan.
Edited by CN