Engineering & Mining Journal

JUN 2014

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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bulak mines in the Tashkent region. That included the Angren gold process- ing plant, which increased ore process- ing capacities to 600,000 mt/y. AMMC also has a monopoly on cop- per production with an annual refined output of 90,000 mt. The company currently has projects slated to further develop copper mining, which will provide a slight increase in its pro- duction until 2016. In addition, AMMC is the largest silver producer in Uzbekistan with annual output around 140,000 mt, making it one of the largest silver mining companies in Central Asia. Gold Fever Uzbekistan has a large number of ille- gal gold miners. Almost 30,000 are involved, according to local media reports. The number of gold deposits in the central regions of the country are poorly understood and are not included in the state database. However, the Uzbeks know their locations. They can work these shallow 15- to 20-m de- posits without heavy equipment. A gram of gold sells for $8-$10 ($224/oz-$280/oz) on the black mar- ket. The actual volume of illegal gold mining is unknown, but it's believed to be 1 mt/y and continues to grow. Officials claim there is a need to con- tain the free gold miners as their activ- ity hurts the "legal" gold activity in the country; however, no actual work in this area is being carried out. The NMMC said the largest gold producers usually are not interested in developing the type of deposits the illegal miners are extracting. Interest in Tashkent Grows Eventually, Tashkent will become the main gold mining region, while the importance of the western regions where it is currently concentrated with NMMC assets will steadily decrease. Recent geological surveys have located additional gold deposits in the Tashkent region and, in particular, the Angren River valley. These conclusions have been partly confirmed by the State Geological Committee of Uzbekistan. According to recent reports, it is possible to bring into production a number of new fields in the Tashkent region with the total capacity of 20 to 25 mt/y of gold in the next three to five years. Thus, the gold mines in these regions will be the main driver of growth in the gold pro- duction industry of Uzbekistan in com- ing years. The survey found gold reserves of 425 mt and inferred resources of 950 mt concentrated in the Angren River val- ley in an area of not more than 22,000 km 2 , which is about 17% of the Tashkent region. The experts on the State Geological Committee said this concentration within the so-called "gold- en ring Angren" offers very favorable mining. If the large Tashkent and Angen River reserves really exist, the country will have enough gold reserves to sustain mining for another 35 to 40 years. JUNE 2014 • E&MJ; 87 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 87

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