On March 16, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the Almaliq Mining and Metallurgical Plant and held a meeting to accelerate major investment projects in the mining industry. The meeting highlighted plans to attract $2.2 billion in investments across 90 projects by 2026, with targets set for producing 172,500 tons of copper, 120 tons of gold, 210.5 tons of silver, and 8,000 tons of uranium. These figures underscore the country's ambitions in the mining and metallurgical sector.
The meeting emphasized the need to quickly finalize technical and economic justifications for a number of promising deposits and facilities, as well as to simplify expert processes. The government was tasked with resolving organizational and legal issues related to these projects in a short timeframe. Additionally, amid growing demand for energy resources, discussions focused on accelerating coal mining and processing projects, and increasing coal supply volumes to the population and industrial enterprises.
Within the activities of the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Plant, assignments were given for the next phase of expanding the Muruntau deposit, developing new deposits, introducing technologies for extracting gold from complex ores, and revising cooperation mechanisms with investors for some large projects. These measures aim to enhance industrial development and strengthen international collaboration.
In the metallurgical direction, issues such as increasing production volumes at Uzmetkombinat, efficiently utilizing the domestic raw material base, expanding the range of competitive products, and launching the production of metal sheets that meet market demand were reviewed. Specific measures were outlined for raw material supply, product diversification, and market expansion.
Attention was also given to the activities of the Technological Metals Plant, with a task set to accelerate projects for expanding the production of critical metals and complex alloys, as well as producing selenium, tellurium, powder metallurgy parts, and other high-value-added products. Managers were instructed to develop targeted programs to reduce unit costs, decrease energy consumption, and promote resource efficiency across industry enterprises.
Special emphasis was placed on expanding the local component in state procurement and cooperation. Accordingly, managers were assigned clear indicators to increase the share of the local component in projects and purchases this year beyond $2 billion. Furthermore, plans were discussed to intensify geological exploration, identify additional reserves, offer new deposits and investment blocks to investors, and involve promising hydrocarbon areas in the economy, aimed at effective management of the country's natural resources.
Source: www.gazeta.uz