Almalyk mining and metals complex intends to build estimated $60 mln lead plant
TASHKENT. March 25 (Interfax) - OJSC Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Works plans to build plant for the processing of lead concentrate costing a preliminary $60 million in 2013-2014, a source in Almalyk management told Interfax.
The source said building the plant is envisioned in a program for the modernization, technical and technological transformation of Almalyk in 2012-2015. The project capacity of the enterprise is 15,000 tonnes of lead per year. A feasibility study for the project is in the works and could be approved before the end of this year.
At the present time, Almalyk does not produce metal lead. Since 1970, the has operated a lead-zinc beneficiation factory, which processes ore from the polymetal deposits Kurganshinkan and Altyntopkan in Tajikistan. In 1998, after the completion of Kurganshinkan the halt of ore deliveries from Altyntopkan, the beneficiation plant was shifted to the processing of copper-molybdenum ore.
In 2010, Almalyk built in Surkhandarya Region an enrichment plant for the processing of polymetallic copper-lead-zinc ore from the Khandiz deposit. Its designed capacity is 650,000 tonnes of ore per year. Now the copper and zinc concentrates obtained at the plant are shipped Almalyk's metallurgical plants. Lead concentrate is temporarily in storage, and the plan is to process it at the new facility.
Almalyk, which is based in the Tashkent region, consists of eight mining enterprises, four concentrating plants and two metallurgical plants. It mines the Kalmakyr and Sary-Cheku copper-porphyry fields in the Tashkent region itself and the Uch-Kulach lead-zinc-barium field in the Jizak region. Almalyk, which produces 90% of Uzbekistan's silver and 20% of its gold, is working on a number of projects to modernize and overhaul existing production facilities, expand its resource base and build new facilities with a combined estimated cost of about $670 million. According to the state investment program for 2013, the plan is to put $140 million towards these goals, including $45.4 million out of Almalyk's own coffers.
