TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan has prepared more than 200 proposals for exploration of investment blocks and promising areas for foreign investors, which were presented at the recent international conference Uzgeoinvest in Tashkent, the Jahon information agency reported.
Investors are offered 38 promising areas to explore for uranium, tungsten, lithium and other rare metals under the terms of production sharing agreements and establishment of joint ventures.
Companies that finance geological exploration of mineral resources will have the exclusive right to obtain licenses for mining operations on the fields they have explored.
Since 2012, Uzbekistan has been working on compilation of lists of undeveloped fields and their regional location maps, taking into account the demands of the industry and the import substitution program.
According to the State Balance of Mineral Reserves as of January 1, 2016, a total of 1,895 deposits had been discovered in the country, more than 1,000 or 53 percent of which had been discovered in the years since independence. This year’s list of investment projects for investors includes 547 solid mineral deposits ready for mining. Of these, 463 fields are envisaged for building materials, 38 for mining, 16 for mining and chemical and 30 for semiprecious materials.
Uzbekistan plans to establish enterprises on the basis of abovementioned deposits, and produce a wide range of domestically and internationally marketable products. Some of the deposits are located in the immediate vicinity of free economic zones.
