DUSHANBE, July 13, 2010, Asia-Plus — Kazakhstan’s company, S.A. Minerals, risks losing its license for exploring the Akjilga silver deposit in Murgab district, Gorno Badakhshan, the Main Geology Directorate head Azim Ibrohim said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“Under an agreement reached by the sides, S.A. Minerals committed itself to invest 2 million U.S. dollars in exploration of the Akjilga deposit this year,” said Ibrohim, “However, these funds have not been allocated so far that evokes concern of the Tajik side.”
“In my opinion, this is connected with crisis in the company’s headquarters. It would not cost such a world-level company anything to allocate 2 million U.S. dollars for carrying out these works. It is relatively not so large amount. However, they have not done this and if they cannot afford to allocate this amount, it means that there are some problems,” said Tajik official, “The deposit is very promising and we now just have to know whether the company will work or not, because there are many others interested to participate in this project.”
According to him, the S.A. Minerals representatives in Tajikistan say they have not yet received instruction from the headquarters on allocation of funds. “Six months have passed but nothing has been done so far. We are slightly alarmed by this; however, I am currently not scaring or threatening by measures that will be introduced for violation of the agreement terms. We will just continue conducting negations.”
Tajik chief geologist says Akjilga, located near the settlement of Alichour in Murgab district of Gorno Badakhshan, is Tajikistan’s second largest silver deposit after the Koni Mansuri Kalon deposit in Sughd province.
Ibrohim says the Akjilga deposit is estimated to contain around 35,000 tons of silver. “One ton of the deposit’s ore contains some one kilogram of silver, while one ton of the Koni Mansuri Kalon deposit’s ore contains around 50 grams of silver. “The Akjilga deposit may arouse interest of any investor,” he said.
We will recall that Kazakhstan’s S.A. received license from the Tajik Government for exploration of the Akjilga deposit in 2006.
