DUSHANBE, June 14, Asia-Plus – Tajik-Canadian gold mining joint venture Aprelevka needs $8 million to mine and process ores at Ikkijelon and Eastern Aprelevka, Asia-Plus has learned from the JV financial director Mirzo Sharipov.
According to him, the enterprise specialists have worked out two investment projects for developing these two deposits. “Since we currently do not have spare funds, the Aprelevka administration has decided to attract investments,” the financial director said.
Sodirkhon Safarov, the commercial director of the JV Aprelevka, told Asia-Plus that through development of these two deposits, the company intends to increase production of precious metals by 20 percent and bring the production of gold to 580 kilograms. He said that the company last year produced 485 kilograms of gold.
According to specialists from the Tajik geology directorate, the gold and silver reserves of the Ikkijelon deposit are estimated at 3.5 tons and 7.5 tons respectively. Mining of ores at the Ikkijelon deposit had started in the Soviet time already. The mining of the deposit was suspended in the early Nineties, according to him.
As far as the Eastern Aprelevka deposit is concerned, the JV specialists are currently exploring gold and silver reserves of this deposit. It is to be noted that according to data of the Soviet time, the Eastern Aprelevka deposit has possible gold reserves of more than 2 tons and possible silver reserves of 14 tons.
The company is currently engaged in mining and processing of ores at Aprelevka, Kyzyl-Cheku, Burgunda, and other small deposits in the Sughd province.
The Tajik-Canadian gold-mining joint venture Aprelevka was established in the Sughd province of Tajikistan in 1995. Dore alloy is the finished product of this enterprise. Tajikistan owns 51 percent of the shares and the Canadian company Gulf International Minerals assumes the 49% ownership interest in the joint-stock company Aprelevka. 60 percent of the company’s product goes to replenishing Tajikistan’s golden reserves.
The last year’s
modernization of the JV gold-extracting factory has enabled the company to increase its annual productivity from 180,000 tons of ore to 300,000 tons.
Tajikistan is reach in mineral deposits. According to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), Tajikistan has 28 known gold deposits containing an estimated 429.3 tons of gold. The country produces just over 3 t of gold each year, most of which comes from the Jilau deposit operated by the Zeravshan Gold Company (ZGC), which is a joint venture with Avocet Mining PLC. The third gold producer is JV Darvaz that produces gold from its alluvial operation at the Yakhsuo deposit, located in Khatlon province in southern Tajikistan. It reportedly has proven reserves of around 25 tons of gold.
As far as silver deposits are concerned, the total silver reserves in Tajikistan are estimated at 60,000 tons.
