BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 24
By Amina Nazarli - Trend:
Turkmenistan can fully supply its domestic market with salt, Turkmen scientist, Doctor of Technical Sciences, and expert Allaberdy Ilyasov told CentralAsia.news, Trend reports.
"Turkmenistan is rich in mineral salt reserves, the main ones being chlorides (including potassium) and sulfates (a group of anhydrite, gypsum, mirabilite, and others). It can fully supply the domestic market," the expert said.
As Ilyasov pointed out, the government is taking a strategic approach to resolve the issues associated with transitioning the national economy to a non-resource-based development path.
"Today, Turkmenistan's chemical industry plays a strategic role in addressing the problems of transitioning the national economy to a non-resource path of development, establishing new industries, and increasing production of diverse and competitive products - import-substituting, to meet domestic needs, as well as export-oriented, which is in high demand in foreign markets," the expert noted.
The Garabogazgol Bay located in Turkmenistan, according to Ilyasov, is the world's largest salt pool.
"Its water area is around 18,000 square kilometers. Modern production at Garabogazgol aims to obtain sodium sulfate, bischofite, epsomite, sodium chloride, bromine, and lithium. It is more than ten different industrial goods," Ilyasov stated.
Although the Garabogazgol Bay has huge quantities of mineral salts, according to the expert only a small portion of them are exploited. Garabogaz's resources enable the organization of several more prospective industrial productions.
"Deposits of sodium sulfate, bischofite, epsomite, magnesium, and magnesium oxide extracted from salty brine in the bay are used in more than 25 industries, including space technology, aircraft and shipbuilding, automotive, agricultural, and household chemicals," he explained.
