DUSHANBE (Sputnik) — The Tajik Aluminium Company (TALСO) plans to increase the production of primary aluminum to 300,000 tons by 2020, TALCO official representative Igor Sattarov said Tuesday.
"The production [of primary aluminum] will be brought to 168,800 tons in 2018, to 188,800 tons in 2019, and to 300,000 tons in 2020," Sattarov said.
According to Sattarov, TALСO might reach those rates due to the currently favorable market conditions and positive expectations for the future, as well as the introduction of new technologies of aluminum production. Besides, it is planned to consider the production of alumina on the territory of Tajikistan's nonconventional ore fields (nephelinic syenite, granatite and others). The estimated cost of the project amounts to approximately $1 billion.
In early August, Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Trade Nematullo Hikmatullozoda said that projections for the production of primary aluminum in 2017 amounted to 148,000 tons. In 2016, Tajikistan produced 129,300 tons of primary aluminum which is a decrease of 7.2 percent in comparison with 2015.