Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov.24
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
German Dobersek Engineering company has started to build a new copper-smelting furnace at Uzbekistan's Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine (AMMC), said the message from AMMC.
The total cost of the project is $91.59 million.
Currently, the German company is working out the documents of the project. Moreover, the supply of imported equipment and preparations for construction and installation work has already started.
The project envisages construction of a "turnkey" new automatic copper-smelting furnace with submerged lance with the capacity of 17,000 tons of copper per year.
The project will be financed with the loans from Uzbekistan's Fund for Reconstruction and Development ($29 million), loans from the joint-stock commercial mortgage bank "Ipoteka Bank" ($34.1 million) and own funds of AMMC.
Almalyk MMC is the only copper producer in Uzbekistan. The raw material base of the company are Kalmakyr and Sarah-Ceku copper-porphyry ores (Tashkent province), deposit of lead-zinc-barite ore Uch-Kulach (Jizzakh province), as well as deposit of polymetallic ores Handiza (Kashkadarya province).
The plant produces refined copper, metallic zinc, lead concentrate and other products. The AMMC accounts for 90 percent of silver and 20 percent gold production in the country.