Interfax
October 24

FLI Environmental, the Waterfordbased environmental solutions provider, has secured an unusual new contract to extend a gold-mining installation in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan.

The Waterford company supplied and installed geo-membrane for a leach-pad for the Turkistani goldmining installation two years ago and the current extension will bring the overall value of the contract with FLI to a total of $3 million.

Uzbekistan, which has been an independent state since 1991, is facing major environmental challenges because of depletion of water supplies and over-use of agrochemicals in the past.

Located north of Afghanistan, the country is roughly the size of California and has a population of 26 million people.

Declan McGrath, Operations Director with FLI Environmental, said the site is located two hours flying time north-west of Tashkent near a town called Nukus.

The desert terrain is difficult with summer temperatures soaring to 40 degrees Celsius and above, while by mid-October, the temperatures are below zero.

The leach-pad originally installed by FLI under contract to the giant US corporation, Newmont Mining Corporation of Denver, Colorado, the world's largest gold producer, measured 187 acres.

The pad is used to store a mound of ore through which chemicals percolate to leach out the gold ore, which is then collected and processed into bullion.

This year, Newmont expects to sell between 7.2 million and 7.4 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of between $198 and $208 per ounce.

The corporation operates core assets in the US, Peru, Australia and Indonesia and employs approximately 14,000 people worldwide. The FLI Environmental management team, headed by Operations Director, Declan McGrath concluded negotiations on the current contract with Newmont during August this year.

Logistically the project involved transporting 25 40 ft containers of material by road from FLI's manufacturing plant in Germany, by rail to Rotterdam, ship to Latvia and by train to Zarfshan in Uzbekistan.

Once the installation detail and planning was concluded with Phillip Galvin, FLI's Installations Manager the materials were followed to site by installation technicians, Andrew Taylor, Richard Doyle and Pat Conway who will remain on this remote site until mid-December, the scheduled completion of the specialist installation works.

"The current contract which we are completing in Uzbekistan arose because of the very good working relationship we established with Newmont Mining Corporation's representatives during the initial contract," says Michael J. Flynn, Managing Director of FLI Environmental. "The work we are doing at present will extend the leach-pad facility by about 70 acres.

"We are operating in a very specialist area of work and as Europe's largest independent supplier and installer of geosynthetic lining systems over the past 20 years with successful contracts completed for complex installations in more than 40 countries, we can virtually work anywhere in the world.

"Two years ago, we completed a similar contract in a location which to us here in Ireland is one of the remotest areas on earth, Lihir Island, off Papua New Guinea. As gold-mining goes on all over the world, there is significant potential for us to secure new contracts in many locations," added Mr. Flynn.

FLI was founded by Michael Flynn in 1989 to offer containment solutions to prevent groundwater pollution due to the seepage of chemicals and leachates into the water table.

Since the late 1980s, EU environmental laws and regulations stipulate that all industries take action to prevent pollution to air, land or sea. Mr Flynn said that for the past 20 years developed countries throughout the world have focused increasingly on environmental issues and the damage caused by industrialisation and at present, the European Union is committed to providing environmental solutions to countries that are still developing.

He predicts that developing nations will present further exciting opportunities for FLI Environmental in the coming years.

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