Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine, a monopoly copper producer in Uzbekistan, will execute a $420 million-worth project to develop Yoshlik II porphyry copper deposit by 2024, according to the decree of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The main parameters of the investment project have been approved in the document. The deposit should reach its designed capacity by 2023. It is planned to produce up to 2 million tons of ore at the deposit annually.
The Uzbek president instructed the State Committee for Geology and Mineral Resources of Uzbekistan to issue AMMC a license for the subsoil usage rights “without public bidding, on the results of direct negotiations.”
AMMC must prepare a feasibility study for the project until September 1, 2018. The enterprise was granted a number of benefits, including tax and customs concessions, for the duration of the project implementation. The financing will be provided through a loan worth $350 million from the Fund for Reconstruction and Development of Uzbekistan, loans from local banks and AMMC’s own funds.
In April AMMC started developing the Dalneye porphyry copper deposit. The combine started implementation of the first phase, which envisages development of the Central quarry of the Dalneye deposit, execution of overburden and mining operations, as well as construction of the facilities for production, transport, energy and other auxiliary infrastructure.
The second phase (2019-2028) envisages construction of a complex of processing, smelting, associated and auxiliary facilities, with the processing capacity of 23 million tons of ore per year and the continuation of overburden and mining operations.
The processing capacity of these facilities is planned to reach 35 million tons of ore per year before 2028.
The total cost of the project is about $1.7 billion.
According to the Uzbek presidential decree, the Dalneye deposit was renamed Yoshlik I, and the Kyzata deposit was renamed Yoshlik II. The projects will be implemented simultaneously. (Trend/Ukrainian metal)