KHUJAND, November 12, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The first six Chinese-made dump trucks with a carrying capacity of 20 tons each have arrived in the Sughd province for open joint-stock company (OJSC), Adrasman Ore Refinery, the ore refinery director general Barot Karimov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

 According to him, bulldozer, truck crane and four loaders will be delivered to the enterprise within the next few days.  “Besides, Belarus has already shipped two tractor-and-trailer rigs for underground work and they are expected to arrive in the province in 10 or 12 days,” the director general said, noting that more than US$2 million had been spent for modernization of the enterprise.  

The ore refinery produces the lead concentrate.  Last year, more than 100,000 tons of ores were extracted and 6.97 million somoni worth of 1,885 tons of the concentrate was produced from them.  The enterprise stood idle from December 2007 through May this year.    

Established in 1967, the Adrasman ore refinery is engaged in mining and processing of lead ore for producing led-silver concentrate.  The plant’s rated capacity is more than 650,000 tons of ore a year.  The ore refinery was purchased by Kazakhstan’s KazInvest-Mineral in July 2006 for 11 million somoni.

Under an agreement concluded between KazInvest-Mineral, which assumed the 100 percent ownership interest in the or refinery, and Kazakh company North Time this year, 74 percent of shares in the ore refinery were transferred to North Time.