ITAR-TASS
November 6

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is expected to issue a loan of 35 million U.S. dollars to Uzbekistan for developing the Zamirtan deposit of gold in the Samarkand region, said a source at the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations.

The Uzbek government has issued a developer license for the deposit to Multiplex Mining Co of Australia. The same company will be developing another major gold deposit in the Samarkand region, the Gujumsai.

Sources at Uzbekistan's State Committee for Geology said the combined reserves of both deposits total 20 million tons of ore and the average content of gold there is 10 grams per ton.

The government has approved the list of eight more projects, for which it will borrow finances from the EBRD. The total borrowing is likely to be in the neighbourhood of 480 million U.S. dollars.

Geologists have discovered 41 deposits of gold on the territory of Uzbekistan to date. Gold ore is the predominant resource at 33 of them.

The nine deposits that different companies are developing at the moment produce 80 tons of gold annually.

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