DUSHANBE, February 26, Asia-Plus — Sodirokhon Safarov, the engineer-in-chief at the limited liability gold company Aprelevka (Tajik-Canadian Joint Venture), announced on February 26 that the company suffered an estimated 6 million somonis in economic damage from electricity shortages in January 2008.
According to him, the company last month produced only 16.7 kilograms of gold, which is 2.3 times fewer than in January 2007 (37 kilograms).
He added that as a result of electricity shortages some equipment had been crippled.
“Since yesterday, the enterprise has worked only for 38 percent of its capacity,” said the engineer-in-chief. “Since the beginning of this month, the enterprise has produced only six kilograms of gold. However, we hope that another six kilograms will have been produced by the end of February, which will be more than 2 times fewer than in February 2007, when Aprelevka produced 30 kilograms of gold.”
According to him, the enterprise now has electrical power for only several hours. At present, Aprelevka receives 36,000-38,000 kWh of electricity per day, while its daily requirements in electrical power are 45 kWh, Safarov said.
The Tajik-Canadian gold-mining joint venture Aprelevka was established in the Sughd province of Tajikistan in 1995. The company is engaged in mining and processing of ores at Aprelevka, Kyzyl-Cheku, Burgunda, Ekiljon and other small deposits in northern Tajikistan. 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.
Three gold extraction joint ventures currently operate in Tajikistan – “Zarafshon”, “Aprelevka” and “Darvoz”. The “Zarafshon” gold company is a leader of mining industry in Tajikistan. The joint-stock company “Zarafshon” is a gold-mining enterprise, which processes local gold deposits. Gold-silver Dore alloy, which is refining at affinage plant in Tajikistan with producing of chemically pure gold and silver (99.99 and 99.95 alloys respectively), is the main product.
