00:00Gold, silver, copper, uranium. Uzbekistan is blessed with abundant natural resources.
00:10Critical to digital and green energy transitions, the country is expanding mining and exports.
00:17How can it be done sustainably and how does Europe stand to benefit?
00:24Hello and welcome to the programme.
00:27Right now, Uzbekistan is exploring or developing 487 mineral deposits,
00:35with foreign investors involved in 27 projects being implemented this year.
00:40By 2030, annual exports of mining products will be worth 2.3 billion euros,
00:48including uranium used for nuclear energy, which last year made up 730 million euros of exports.
00:56We've been to a new uranium project to find out more.
01:05Deep in the desert of Uzbekistan's Novoi region, rich reserves of uranium lie hidden in the ground.
01:14Valuable resources that are being tapped by a joint French-Uzbek venture.
01:20We have two licenses, Sars-Gengeldi, North-Gengeldi.
01:25Sars-Gengeldi is ready for production.
01:26North-Gengeldi, you can see here, is under exploration.
01:30It will come as well to production within a few years.
01:37Exploration means drilling and probing, and then extracting cylindrical shaped samples or cores to isolate the uranium.
01:47It's difficult to see because uranium is very small.
01:52After we take the sampling, we will send it to the laboratory.
01:56If we find a good result, it's good for our team and our company.
02:01At least 10,000 tons of uranium is expected to be extracted as part of the overall project.
02:12And it will be mined using a special technique called in-situ leaching.
02:17In-situ leaching is one of the environmental-friendly methods because it does not require open pit.
02:26We use wells and we pour into the ore-body acidic or alkaline solutions, which dissolve uranium.
02:36And then they are brought back to the surface and then processed.
02:43Uzbekistan's Novoi Uran, a state-owned mining enterprise, is working with the French company, Arano, as part of the joint venture.
02:52There's also a Japanese partner, the Ototiu Corporation, which has a minority stake in the project.
03:00Uzbekistan is one of the major players in uranium.
03:05They are a huge producer of uranium worldwide.
03:08They produce uranium for more than 60 years, so it is an important country in uranium production.
03:13It was interesting for Arano to come and to join this country.
03:17The idea is to stay on the long term in Uzbekistan to develop this partnership.
03:22Global demand for green energy is increasing and Uzbekistan is well positioned as a reliable partner.
03:30We believe that the international best practices which we apply in geology up to the final production,
03:37they comply with the demands of investors.
03:42And we hope that there will be more investors which are interested in this uranium production.
03:55Let's speak now to Roman Balkulchuk from the Norwegian Institute of International Relations, who's in Oslo.
04:01How do you think Uzbekistan can sustainably develop this sector?
04:05I know that the government is currently building partnerships with different international organisations
04:10with respect to adopting high environmental standards.
04:14We know how widespread is the use of the OECD standards when it comes to due diligence
04:19and also safety standards in mining and processing of critical materials.
04:24What do you think it all means for Europe's green energy transition?
04:27We know that, well, for the EU, for its grid deal plans, the supply of critical materials from Uzbekistan can be very important
04:34because those metals and minerals are used in the production of solar panels, wind turbines, storage facilities, batteries, also electric cars.
04:43So I believe that partnership would be quite beneficial for both sides.
04:47Roman, thank you for joining us.
04:49Well, that's all we have time for in this edition, but there's more business news at Euronews.com.
04:54Thanks for watching and bye for now.
