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measures about 3.5 x 2.5 km and ex- tends to a depth of 560 m. According to the reconstruction pro- gram, a new mine, Bessopan, will be launched in a part of the deposit that the company has been exploring recent- ly. The mine will be commissioned in 2016-2017, and, according to prelimi- nary information, its capacity will be about 5 mt/y to 10 mt/y. Overall pro- duction at Muruntau will grow by 30% to 2.5 million oz/y (71 mt/y). At the same time, the company plans to expand underground gold pro- duction at open-pit operations. The move will allow NMMC to add 250 to 300 million mt of ore at the number of deposits with an average gold content of 0.69 g/mt previously not included in the resource base. This should ensure the stable operation of the company for the next 40 years. Furthermore, a 2013 analysis of mining waste (overburden) and process- ing waste (tails from hydrometallurgical plants), found that 25% to 40% of the 2 billion mt of rock contains gold in an amount sufficient for cost-effective pro- cessing. The company plans to start processing these wastes, which could add 2 mt/y to 3 mt/y of gold. NMMC will begin exploring and exploiting a number of new deposits. The government has recently allocated $300 million to explore and mine three large gold deposits: Charmitan, Guzhumsay and Intermediate in the central part of the country. The project also includes rebuilding an existing gold mill near Mardjanbulak in the eastern part of the country, which will significantly improve its processing capacities for the new mines. In recent years, NMMC has been actively increasing its ore processing capacities preparing to launch these new mines. In 2012, it finished the second phase of construction at HMP-4, which increased ore processing capacity by 40%, or about 1.5 million mt/y of ore. Furthermore, NMMC established an enterprise to extract gold from carbona- ceous sulfide-refractory ores in Zarmitane in the Samarkand region in the southeast. The project should be completed soon and it should reach its design capacity by the end of 2015. The complex of mines and a new gold mill will have the capacity of 1.8 milion mt of ore processing and 10 mt/y of gold production. Also at the gold mill near Mardjan- bulak, NMMC has recently invested $20 million to introduce technologies for processing refractory ores, which has not been previously done in Uzbekistan. The production line was commissioned at the end of 2013 and it is still unclear what capacity it will have. Mardjanbulak is also experiment- ing with gravity-flotation-kiln technolo- gy. This innovation will increase gold recovery by 12%. According to NMMC, the develop- ment of uranium production in coming years is associated with the construc- tion and launching of six new mines for JUNE 2014 • E&MJ; 85 www.e-mj.com U Z B E K G O L D EMJ_pg82-87_EMJ_pg82-87 6/4/14 10:33 AM Page 85