BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 29
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev laid the first stone in the foundation of the new copper processing plant of the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Complex (AMMC) worth $2 billion, Trend reports citing Uzbek media.
It is reported that in recent years, copper production at the complex has increased 1.5 times and reached 150,000 tons. According to international assessment criteria, the total copper reserves of the AMMC deposit are estimated at 45 million tons, and gold reserves at more than 5,000 tons. These are the highest rates in the world. It was also revealed that the ore mined here contains silver, molybdenum, selenium, tellurium, rhenium and other rare metals.
“Today in the world attention is increasing to the ‘green economy’, renewable energy sources, the electrical industry is rapidly developing. As a result, copper demand is projected to grow by at least 40 percent by 2030. This means that the demand for the products of the AMMC in the world will be steadily high for many years to come,” the message says.
At the first stage, this enterprise will process 60 million tons of ore per year.
At the second stage, the processing capacity will grow to 160 million tons, which is three times more than today. As a result of the implementation of these two stages, by 2028 the enterprise will have an annual production capacity of 400,000 tons of copper, 50 tons of gold and 270 tons of silver.
"In the future, the volume of products manufactured by the plant will more than triple, and its value will increase from the current $2.5 billion to about $8 billion. Some 11,000 new high-tech jobs will appear," the president said.
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