DUSHANBE, June 26, 2009, Asia-Plus — President Emomali Rahmon, who is currently on his working visit to northern Tajikistan, today morning visited the settlement of Altyn-Topkan subordinate to the city of Qairoqqum to attend an opening ceremony of an ore-dressing plant at the Tajik-Chinese Mining Company, according to presidential press service.
Today, the first line of the plant was put into operation. The first line has the capacity of processing 300,000 tons of lead and zinc per year.
More than 180 million somoni have been spent for construction of the plant so far. 450 people, including 200 Tajik nationals, have been placed in job at the plant, the press service said.
The plant is expected to work in full capacity before the end of November. In all, some 3,000 people, including 2,100 Tajik nationals, will work with the plant and it will be capable to process more than 1 million tons of ore per year.
Speaking at the inaugurating ceremony, the president proposed to rename Altyn-Topkan Zarnisor (Zarnisor is Tajik word meaning gold-bearing are. The Uzbek word Altyn-Topkan means the same).
Deputy governor of China’s Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region Nurlan Abdumatin and the Tajik-Chinese Mining Company head Zan Zhun also attended the ceremony.
As it had been reported earlier, China’s company, China Global LTD, purchased the Altyn-Topkan mine by auction and the limited liability company, The Tajik-Chinese Mining Company, was established on the basis of the mine. The company with an authorized fund of 103.2 million somoni was registered with the Ministry of Justice on October 1, 2007.
According to an agreement signed between Tajik Ministry of Energy and Industries and China Global LTD, the Chinese company invests 30 million U.S. dollars in construction of the ore-dressing plant and development of Paybuloq and Altyn-Topkan deposits in 2007-2010. The plant will produce lead-and-zinc concentrate.
