KHUJAND, December 4, 2008, Asia-Plus — The global financial crisis has affected a number of industrial enterprises in the Sughd province.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the deputy Qairoqqum mayor, Khdoinazar Yuldoshev noted that the Adrasman ore refinery and open joint-stock company, Leninabad Rare Metals Plant (LRMP), had suspended their operations because of landslide of prices and sharp decrease in demand for their products.
According to him, a large amount of precuts has been stored at the enterprises.
The deputy mayor added that the Tajik-Canadian joint venture for mining gold had also decreased production volumes.
“Over the first eleven months of this year, the Adrasman ore refinery has produced 6,167,294 somoni worth of output, which is 83.8 percent of the January-November 2008 level, while LRMP has produced 9,892,942 somoni over the report period, which is 84.3 percent more than in the same period of last year,” Yuldoshev said.
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.
Leninabad Rare Metals Plant (LRMP), located in the settlement of Choruk- Darron, which is 20 kilometers away from Khujand, produces ferrosilicon. The enterprise owner is Austria’s Stork Group.
The plant was established during the year 1942 and was one of the biggest vanadium and molybdenum based master alloys producer during the Soviet period. After the collapse of Soviet Union, it had to undergo certain changes. Currently it is specialized in the production of: Ferrovanadium (FeV), Ferromolybdenum (FeMo), and Ferrotitanium (FeTi). Technical know-how, expertise and production facilities of the plant are intact and can allow producing many special alloys.
