Interfax
October 23

Buoyed by sustained growth in demand on the world markets and aided by cost-effective yet environmentally- friendly technology and equipment, Uzbekistan is aiming to boost uranium mine-output 40% to 3,000 tonnes annually - the sort of level not seen since the mid 1980s - by 2010.

The Navoi Mining and Metals Combine, Uzbekistan's uranium monopoly, has made vast strides forward since 1995, when it had to shut some of its mines because they were uneconomical, Nikolai Kuchersky, the combine's general director, said at an international geology conference in Tashkent.

Since then, Navoi has been mining uranium by the in situ leach (ISL) method. Apart from being cheaper to use and less damaging to the environment, ISL has enabled Navoi to bring on stream uranium deposits in the Central Kyzyl Kum that could not be developed by conventional methods.

Three ISL operations are being implemented - at the Kendyktyube, Lyavlakan and Tokhumbet deposits - and ISL is being tested at the big Surgaly deposit, Kuchersky said.

All of this is bolstering Navoi's geological reserves and positioning it nicely to raise mine output substantially and keep up with increasing market demand.

Navoi has become self-sufficient in PVC and polyethelene casing pipes after building a factory of its own. And the combine uses highly- productive submersible pumps supplied by Denmark's Grundfos to mine more than 90% of its uranium.

Kuchersky said Navoi is reporting up to 1,000 tonnes in new geological uranium finds each year. This year alone, geologists are planning to drill 100,000 linear meters of prospecting and exploration holes. Navoi's entire geology budget is $8 million for 2003. The combine, which is also Uzbekistan's biggest gold producer, will spend $6 million of this on gold exploration and $2 million on uranium.

The combine has uranium milled at its No. 1 hydrometallurgical plant in the city of Navoi.

In Soviet times Navoi used to produce 3,000-3,500 tonnes of low- enrched uranium per year. Production decline bottomed out in 1996, when the plant produced 1,700 tonnes, in connection with poor world market trends, however in 1999, output recovered somewhat to 2,100 tonnes. Navoi produced 2,100 tonnes of uranium in 2002, as much as in 2001.

Uzbekistan is the world's seventh biggest uranium producer. The state geology committee has said the bulk of the country's uranium lies in 27 deposits in the Kyzyl Kum which contain a probable 55,000 tonnes of uranium between them.

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