Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Nov.28
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
The second stage of Dehkanabad potash fertilizer plant (Kashkadarya region, south of Uzbekistan) will be put into operation in 2015, a source in the Uzhimprom State Joint-Stock Company (SJC) told Trend Nov.27.
Earlier, the plant, the construction of which began in 2011, was planned to be commissioned by the end of 2014.
The second stage construction of the Dehkanabad plant will cost $254.5 million and increase the capacity of the plant threefold up to 600,000 metric tons of potash per year.
The project is financed by credits from the Chinese Exim Bank to the sum of $110.5 million, a loan from the Uzbek Fund for Reconstruction and Development for $128.1 million, as well as Uzhimprom SJC at $16.1 million.
In 2011, Uzhimprom signed contracts with Russian company Western-Ural Machine Building Concern (ZUMK) and the Chinese CITIC International Cooperation worth $238.6 million.
The Russian firm will construct mining complex to produce 1.4 million metric tons of selwynite ore and use telpherage to transport 2.1 million metric tons of ore per year as well as having an external power supply worth $122.3 million.
The Chinese company will construct a processing complex to produce 400,000 metric tons of potash fertilisers per year worth $116.3 million.
In March 2014, CITIC has completed construction of the complex, which is now running in test mode.
Contract with ZUMK was not implemented as planned "for technical and financial reasons," the source said without elaborating.
The source went on to add that at present, Uzhimprom and ZUMK prepared an additional agreement to extend the term of the contract till the end of 2015. It is expected that the government will consider the document before the end of 2014.
The Dehkanabad potash fertiliser plant with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons of potash per year was commissioned in 2014. Contractors of the construction worth $123.7 million were ZUMK and CITIC.
The plant was built on the basis of the Tyubetagan potash field in the Kashkadarya region on the border with Turkmenistan. The total industrial reserves of the field make up 400.2 million metric tons of ore containing potassium chloride at a level of 36.8 percent. The most promising part of the field with reserves of 200 million metric tons of ore was located in the territory of Uzbekistan.
Potash production in Uzbekistan decreased 1.3 times to 84.600 metric tons in 2013, according to official statistics.
