President Shavkat Mirziyoyev got acquainted with the report on the state of affairs and implementation progress of investment geology projects, the presidential press service said.
Almost 3 million tons of coal have been produced over the past six months. Reportedly, underground mechanized complexes have been fully put into operation In the Shargunkumir coal deposit, daily coal production has reached 3,500 tons, with modernization project ongoing with China).
In the second half of the year, it is planned to extract more than 5 million tons of coal. Of these, 1.8 million tons will be supplied to thermal power plants, more than 1 million tons to the population, 540 thousand tons to social institutions. Another 1.8 million tons of local coal will be put up for exchange trading.
Overall, coal production is expected to increase by 1.4 million tons this year compared to last year, while imports (which rose 1.7 times to $204.4 million in 2023) will fall significantly.
The Chinese Henan plans to invest $400 million to develop the Nishbash field in the Akhangaran district of the Tashkent province. The project will help produce up to 8 million tons of coal underground and enrich 5 million tons of coal per year. Henan is a large state-owned company specializing in coal mining and the chemical industry.
Uzbekistan has large reserves of kaolin (white clay used as a raw material in the production of porcelain, earthenware, fine electrical ceramics, and paper), the report notes. Today, entrepreneurs involved in the development of deposits extract 396 thousand tons of this raw material.
As part of the geology program for 2024–2025, seven deposits will be offered to the initiators, and the volume of kaolin production is expected to be increased to 2.7 million tons.
Together with the Turkish Bab Energy ve Petrol Urunleri A.S., it is also planned to produce enriched kaolin on the basis of the Apartak-3 deposit in the Tashkent project. As a result, 40 new jobs will be created and 70 thousand tons of enriched kaolin will be harvested per year.
