Uzbek newspaper 'Pravda Vostoka'
November 7
he USA's RIK International Industrial Co. intends to set up a joint venture
in Uzbekistan to develop placer and primary small gold deposits in the
Nurata mountains of central Samarkand and Navoi Regions.
At present, the founding documents of the joint venture are being drawn up. The joint venture may be set up on a fifty-fifty basis by the Uzbek State Committee for Geology and RIK International in early 2002.
The total cost of the project will be 6m dollars, and the foreign company will be funding the project at its initial stage. In March 2001, a protocol of intent on cooperation between the State Committee for Geology and RIK International in studying the possibility of joint exploitation of placer and primary small gold fields in Uzbekistan was signed. Ores from such deposits can be processed by mobile module facilities.
Initially, the resource base of the joint venture will include the Oltinqozon primary small gold deposits in southern Nurata.
Under the project, the RIK International intends to supply 2m dollars worth of such mobile module equipment for the development of the Oltinqozon gold field.
This is the first such project in Uzbekistan with the participation of a foreign investor. At present, the state of the gold market is such that investors are interested in such small deposits, and 85 per cent of the existing mining companies are developing small deposits.