TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, October 15. The third copper processing plant of Uzbekistan’s Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine is being constructed to manufacture high-value products from ores of the Yoshlik-1 deposit, Trend reports.
According to the Uzbek President’s office, the cost of this major project is $4.6 billion, including the development of the deposit, construction of the plant, and its infrastructure. A total of 200 million cubic meters of the deposit's surface has been stripped, 41 kilometers of railway tracks have been laid, and a 650 megawatt substation has been installed. Equipment has been delivered from the US, the UK, Germany, Türkiye, China, Russia, and other European countries.
At the first stage, the plant will process 60 million tons of ore per year. Due to this, 917,000 tons of copper and 2,500 tons of molybdenum concentrates will be produced annually.
The factory will also simplify the logistics process. There are conveyors between all the buildings in the factory. This will eliminate the need for manual loading and transportation of ore and reduce costs.
In the second phase, the capacity will reach 160 million tons. As a result of the implementation of these two stages, by 2028 the enterprise will have the capacity to produce 400,000 tons of copper, 50 tons of gold, and 270 tons of silver per year. Thus, the combine will become one of the world's largest industrial complexes in the mining and metallurgical sector.
Meanwhile, German KfW IPEX Bank and AKA Bank will finance the construction of a new copper smelting complex in Uzbekistan's Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine. The combine signed an agreement with German banks to provide 146 million euros as the first tranche to finance the construction of a new copper smelting complex in Uzbekistan.
