Baku, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Fikret Dolukhanov - Trend:
Uzbekistan sent Rio Tinto, an Australian-British mining corporation, review materials for resumption of cooperation and plans to invite the company to invest in copper mining in the country, Uzbek media reported on March 5.
“Currently we are working on resuming the cooperation with Rio Tinto. In particular, we sent them new materials for reviewing and information about estimated areas for geological survey. The company had left Uzbekistan to reduce expenditures amid price hike,” a source in the Uzbek State Geology Committee told local news agency Sputnik Uzbekistan.
In 2012, the State Committee issued the company a five-year-long license for geological survey work on copper detection in Gava prospected area in Namangan province. Rio Tinto decided to cease the project due to unfavorable price conjuncture after the completion of the first stage of work in 2015.
The source also added that the situation in the global market is much better now, hence, new projects were offered to the company and new prospects are to be discussed through the Foreign Ministry.
According to the information, Almalyk Mining Works is currently the only copper producer in Uzbekistan. Raw materials are delivered from Kalmakyr and Sary-Cheku copper-porphyry mines.
The agency also noted that Uzbekistan started the implementation of an ambitious program on attraction of foreign investors for geological prospecting of copper, gold, platinum and other metals in 2017. Memorandums on cooperation in this direction were signed with a number of companies from South Korea and China.
Certain agreements were signed with Russian “Rosgeoperspektiva” group of companies. The company will carry out geological survey work in Kazakhtau and Kazakhtau 1 prospected areas in Navoi province of Uzbekistan. The Russian company plans to invest no less than $3 million during the first year of operation.
