KHUJAND, June 17, 2009, Asia-Plus — Open joint-tock company (OJSC Adrasman Ore Refinery has reportedly recovered from its economic crisis and its mangers hope that it will become profitable again.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the ore refinery director general Barot Karimov said that the enterprise had paid off its wage debts in an mount of 108,000 somoni. “The enterprise’s tax debts in an amount of 1.177 million somoni have also been paid off,” said the director general, “The enterprise now does not have any wage or tax debts and workers currently receive their wages stably without delays.”
According to him, more than 530 people work for the enterprise and current average monthly wages are 1,800 somoni for miners and up to 700 somoni for dressers.
Karimov noted that the ore refinery produced 450 tons of lead concentrate last month. “We are still selling the lead concentrate at the price lower than its cost price; however, the world lead concentrate prices are rising and if we increase the production volumes we will be able to make the enterprise profitable already in June,” he said, noting that over the first five months of this year, the ore refinery has produced output more than through last year.
Established in 1967, the Adrasman ore refinery is engaged in mining and processing of lead ore for producing the lead-silver concentrate. The plant’s rated capacity is more than 650,000 tons of ore a year. The ore refinery was purchased by Kazakhstan’s KazInvest-Mineral in July 2006 for 11 million somoni.
Under an agreement concluded between KazInvest-Mineral, which assumed the 100 percent ownership interest in the or refinery, and Kazakh company North Time this year, 74 percent of shares in the ore refinery were transferred to North Time.
