KHUJAND, October 4, 2008, Asia-Plus — In the near future, investments in open joint-stock company (OJSC), Adrasman Ore Refinery, may reach 4.25 million US dollars, Nurlan Alimbetov, chairman of the board of joint-stock company (JSC) Konimansour (Kazakhstan), which is owner of the ore refinery, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, work on the ore refinery is progressing and US$1.65 million have been remitted to the enterprise so far.
Besides, they have concluded contracts for delivery of U$1.6 million worth of special equipment. “All these contracts have already been paid,” Alimbetov said, noting that a number of other contracts on delivery of equipment “for some US$1 million are on the way.”
The ore refinery is expected to ship the first product in October. By the end of this year, the Adrasman ore refinery should ship some 1000 tons of concentrate.
As it had been reported earlier, the first tranche (US$1.6 million) will be used to purchase mining equipment to improve its production capacities. They will purchase six 25-ton dumper trucks, 20-ton truck crane as well as a number of ground and underground loaders from China. Besides, one of Russian companies will deliver drilling machines and some other mining equipment to enterprise and they will purchase a belt loader from Belarus. The mentioned machines and equipment that will be delivered to the country before the end of this year. The new equipment will allow doubling production of ore.
Established in 1967, the Adrasman ore refinery is engaged in mining and processing of lead ore for producing led-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.
