DUSHANBE, December 21, 2015, Asia-Plus – The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) has been granted licenses to develop two gold deposits located in the northern province of Sughd.
According to the TALCO press center, they have been granted licenses to develop gold deposits Konchoch and Chulobi located in Sughd’s Ayni district.
TALCO has the right to use these deposits during twenty-five years, an official source at TALCO said.
The Konchoch deposit contains antimony, mercury, gold, and silver; previously, Konchoch was considered to be purely a mercury deposit.
The Konchoch deposit reportedly has possible gold reserves of 32 tons and possible silver reserves of 14 tons.
The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world and provides up to 70% of the country’s foreign currency earnings, consuming 40% of the country’s electrical power. TALCO is wholly owned by the Tajik government. Tajikistan does not mine alumina but imports the raw material through tolling arrangements.
Construction of the Tajik aluminum plant (TadAZ) began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminum took place on March 31, 1975. On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company. The Tajik aluminum smelter had the capacity to produce 517,000 metric tons per year.
