Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
Uzbekistan’s authorities plan to raise funds from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the amount of seven million euros for the restoration of two uranium mines in the country, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
The project provides for the rehabilitation and reclamation of the territory of the uranium mines in the city of Yangiabad of Tashkent region and the village of Charkesar of Namangan region in eastern Uzbekistan, which were operated during the USSR and then mothballed in the early 90s of the last century.
A comprehensive assessment and preparation of technical specifications for the project was carried out by the German WISUTEC company which operates in the field of closure of former mining enterprises, treatment of industrial water and environmentally sound waste management, environmental monitoring and geoinformatics.
In March 2017, EBRD and the Government of Uzbekistan signed an agreement to conduct operations on the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia in Uzbekistan. The document provides for the participation of Uzbekistan in the program of reclamation of uranium facilities of the EBRD fund for the restoration of the environment in Central Asia.
The EBRD Fund for Environmental Remediation in Central Asia was established in May 2015 to address the environmental problems of old uranium mining and uranium processing facilities left from the Soviet era in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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