Rio Tinto starts exploring for copper in Uzbekistan
TASHKENT. April 4 (Interfax) - British-Australian multinational Rio Tinto Mining & Exploration Ltd. (Rio Tinto) has begun exploring for copper at the Gava prospect in Uzbekistan's Namangan region.
The company has set up the wholly owned local subsidiary LLC Gava Exploration to act as the operator of the project, Rio Tinto's Uzbek office told Interfax.
A program for the initial phase of exploration work for 2013 has been drafted with Uzbekistan's State Geology and Mineral Resources Committee.
The committee granted Rio Tinto a five-year exploration license to the Gava area in December 2012. The exploration will be conducted on conditions of entrepreneurial risk.
Rio Tinto submitted an application to the committee in 2011 for a license to explore for copper at the prospective Gava field in Namangan region. The company had hoped to receive a five-year license by the end of 2011 and start exploration in the spring of 2012. Rio Tinto chief for Central Asia Chris Welton said at the time that the company could invest up to $100 million in exploration if it achieves good results.
About 900 copper mineralizations and deposits have been identified in Uzbekistan, but only three in the Almalyk district are actually being mined: Kalmakyr, Dalneye and Sary-Cheku, with combined reserves of about 17 million tonnes of copper, which are being developed by the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Works, the country's only copper producer. About 20% of ore at these three deposits has been mined.
