Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, June 20 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan is interested in attracting investors to re-equip the mining industry, the Turkmen Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said on Tuesday.
According to the report, there are more than 200 different fields of solid minerals in Turkmenistan, most of which are located in mountainous areas. "As for already explored deposits, the principal objective is to expand the list and product quality, to conduct the marketing research and to promote goods on the world market, to conduct the technical reequipping of the mining industry, to attract investors, including foreign ones to develop the perspective deposits."
Mineral resources are distributed unevenly throughout Turkmenistan.
Turkmen territory is rich in deposits of mineral salt, native sulfur, bentonite, quartz sand, kaolin and raw materials for the production of building materials required to meet the needs of enterprises of the national economic complex of the country in mineral raw materials.
Among them there are sand and gravel rocks necessary for the construction of roads, construction sand, clay raw material for the brick-tile, various limestone production, suitable for the manufacture of tiles, limestone and quartz sand for cement and glass production, etc.
Several cement fields such as "Kelyati", "Akdepe", "Balkan", "Koitendag" have been explored in various regions of the country. These are gravel, limestone, marl, clay, gypsum, mudstone, sand and gravel deposits.
There are dozens of sand and gravel deposits for crushed stone production, such as "Geoktepe", "Dushak", "Kalaimor", "Garlyk", "Ufrin" porphyry deposit, "Kubatau" granite deposit, "Kernay" deposit of sandstone and shale, etc. There are a number of haydite deposits, in particular, "Bolypebalkan"; gypsum - "Gaurdak", "Bordzha", "Garlyk" and others.
Two major strontium ores fields of (celistin raw materials) - "Arik" and "Sakyrtmin" have been discovered and explored in Turkmenistan.
Local experts believe that the reserves of mineral resources will ensure the domestic needs for several years.
The existing mineral resource base of solid minerals, based on the current realities, taking into account the situation with a particular type of raw materials on the world market, transport conditions and costs, economic viability and continued development of existing fields, is thoroughly analyzed and re-valuated.
Turkmenistan's main natural resources are oil and natural gas reserves. According to them, the country holds one of the leading positions in the world.