Uzbekistan has plans to process up to 300 thousand tons of copper on the domestic market, for this purpose clusters, technoparks and joint ventures manufacturing products from copper are being created, stated the Deputy Minister of Mining and Geology, Ural Yusupov at the international Mining Industry of Uzbekistan and Central Asia congress.
He said that one of such projects is the Akhangaran copper cluster in the Tashkent province, on the basis of which it is planned to gradually produce semiconductors, microelectronic components and other products with high added value. The raw material for this project is copper supplied from the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Plant (AMMC).
In June, AMMC unveiled plans to increase copper production by 2031 to 500 thousand tons against about 150 thousand tons in recent years. Investments in the development of the enterprise during this period will top $15 billion.
In particular, it is expected that as a result of the development of the Yoshlik-1 deposit, the production of cathode copper will increase to 300 thousand tons at the first stage (2021-2025), to 400 thousand tons at the second stage (2024-2028), and to 500 thousand tons at the third stage (2026-2030).
As for the copper cluster, HATCH has previously compiled a long list of about 30 types of copper products that can be produced in Uzbekistan. According to experts, the release of such a wide range will allow Uzbekistan to minimize such a logistical disadvantage of domestic exports as the lack of direct access to seaports.
