DUSHANBE, January 16, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan plans to hold a tender for development of Big Konimansour silver deposit in the Sughd province and a number of foreign companies have already expressed wish to participate in the tender, Azim Ibrohim, Chairman of Tajikistan’s Main Geology Directorate, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 16.
According to him, two Russian companies, including the world”s top nickel producer Norilsk Nickel, and several Kazakh companies want to get license for developing this silver deposit.
Mr. Ibrohim noted that the Geology Directorate had already sent an opinion letter to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), which is expected to hold the tender in the near future.
In the meantime, the source at a MoEI said that their specialists have been working on a concept of holding the tender. All tender bids will be examined by a special commission and the company, which would propose the most optimal project, would be granted a contract for developing the Big Konimansour deposit.
According to the MoEI specialists the Big Konimansour deposit has possible silver reserves of more than 50,000 tons. It is the largest silver deposit in Tajikistan where the mining have been actually started yet. One ton of the deposit”s ore contained around 49 grams of silver, with 0.38 percent zinc and 0.49 percent lead. The estimated budget for development of this deposit is some $2 billion.
We will recall that Norilsk Nickel eyed the Big Konimansour deposit in November 2006 already. The Norilsk Nickel top managers noted that time that in their view, the deposit is in a category of unique and big world-class assets which conform to their strategy of developing.
