Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Tajikistan reduced the export of precious and semiprecious stones and metals, but increased their imports, Avesta news agency reported.

According to available statistical data, the export of precious and semiprecious stones and metals for eight months of the current year amounted to a total of $ 1.1 million, which is $ 43,000 or 3.5 percent less than in the same period of 2017.

The amount of imports exceeded $ 3.1 million, which shows an increase of 4.4 percent compared with the indicators of 2017.

According to the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan, gold production in the republic in the first half of the year slightly decreased. In January-June, gold producers produced about 2.5 tons of gold, which is 37 kg less than in the same period last year.

The decline in gold production is due to the fact that in the first half of the year some industry enterprises did not operate for various reasons.

Earlier, Tajikistan announced plans to annually increase gold production by 6 percent. The authorities intended to put new capacities into operation in order to achieve this result.

Tajikistan's gold assets contain 137 deposits of industrial gold and 127 deposits of non-industrial gold. Tajikistan has registered a new record in gold production in 2017 as the country extracted 5.5 tons.

The main gold-bearing deposits with balance reserves are located in the central part of the republic.

The Central Asian nation has 10 gold producers, the biggest ones being Zarafshon (70 percent of all gold extracted in the country), Aprelevka, Tilloi Tochik, Odina Group and Pakrut.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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