Kungrad Soda Ash Plant - Update

The Kungrad soda plant has a capacity to manufacture 102 thousand tons of soda annually. A Major expansion of the facility now underway (2013-2015) is set to double the annual production output to 200 thousand tons. The proposed expansion being carried out by Uzkimyosanoat JSC and the Chinese company CITIC. The project funded by a loan provided by People’s Republic of China in the amount of $81.7 million USD. Besides the Chinese Eximbank loan, the project worth a total of $110 million USD will be financed by a loan from the Reconstruction and Development Fund and Uzhimprom's own funds.

The plant capacity will be expanded by increasing the production of limestone in the Jamansay quarry and technical salt at the resource base of the Kungard soda plant at Barsakelmes. Explored reserves of the Barsakelmes salt field exceed 130 million tons of salt, and the Dzhamansay limestone deposit around 70 million tons.

The main domestic consumers of soda plant are enterprises producing household chemicals and building materials, including the production of various types of glass. Currently the needs of the domestic market were estimated at 70-80 million tons, the remaining volume to be exported.

In 2013 Kungrad soda plant (Ustyurt) exported 22,000 tons of Soda Ash and 78,000 tons of technical salt and limestone to foreign customers. Currently product is exported to Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. An additional 70 employees, mostly graduates of Kungrad Chemical Engineering College were employed in 2013.

This year (Expected to be commision in October 2014) the facility will also start producing quality iodized salt. The raw material will be extracted from Koraumbet salt deposit, not far from the enterprise. The production line, employing an additional 35 technical staff will produce some 10 thousand tons of iodized salt per year.

A further expansion of the production: with the start of commissioning process line for the production of hyper-pressed limestone bricks with a capacity of 20 million pieces a year is also scheduled in the second half of 2014 which will provide a further 65 technical jobs and in 2015, the plant also plans to start significant glass production (30 percent which is planned to be exported).

Sources:

http://en.trend.az/regions/casia/uzbekistan/2084978.html

http://uza.uz/en/business/3754/

http://www.uz24.uz/en/Economics/kungrad-soda-plant-today:-facts-and-figures

Salt Issues on Farmland in the northern amu darya delta

A salt encrusted field near Kungrad.

Salt coats much of the farmland in the northern  Amu Darya river delta lands. Excessive irrigation combined with existing climatic and geographic factors have caused salt to leach upwards and accumulate above the ground.

Kungrad Soda Plant expanding its capacity to 1.5 K tonnes per year

During 2013-2014, the State Joint Stock Company Uzkhimprom and China's Citic Pacific Ltd. is undertaking a project to increase the current capacity of the Kungrad Soda Plant in northern Karakalpakstan to 150,000 tons of soda ash per year.

The two companies signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2012, which envisages increasing the plants capacity by 1.5 times - up to 150 KTa of soda ash by 2015. Specialists from Citic Pacific and from the design institute "Uzkhimesanoatloyiha" a division of Uzkhimprom feasibility estimate that the cost of the expansion will be in the order of USD 50 million. The project financing is via a loan from China Exim Bank and the Uzbek companies funds.

Note: The first stage of the expansion which doubled production to 100 KTa of soda ash was commissioned in August 2006 at a total project cost of USD 100 million.

Source: http://www.mrcplast.com/news-news_open-144166.html and http://en.trend.az/capital/business/1935684.html

The Ustyurt Plateau

INTRODUCTION

The Ustyurt Plateau also known as the Ust-Urt and Usturt Plateau. (Kazakh: Üstirt, Turkmen: Üstyurt) . The plateau located between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea. It extends roughly 200,000 km²  and consists primarily of stony desert. The plateau’s semi-nomadic population raises sheep, goats, and camels. The Ustyurt is clearly demarcated by its steep escarpments, which reach up to 200m in height called T'chinks.

It is generally a barren and fairly featureless place. In summer, temperatures can reach 42°C and in the winter can fall to -40°C. Coupled with a strong winds it can feel in the summer like being in the permanent blast of a furnace.

The area is inhabited by such rare animals as Usturt Saiga, the moufflon or urial, ratel from the family of martens, long-needled hedge-hog and a good many species of wild cats: karakal, barkhan cat and the famous cheetah and . Birdlife includes  slim gazelles-zhairans, beautiful bustards (or Jacks) and other birds of desert.

The T'Chink

The Ustyurt is an extraordinary natural geological feature, a sand and limestone desert plateau stretching 800km from north to south. It sits on its own micro-tectonic plate or massif which has been gradually elevated over the past four or five million years so that it now stands around 200 metres higher than the delta plane.




Generally the plateau is a slightly hilly desert plain, faintly covered by a wormwood and unprepossessing shrubs of Russian thistle. In wide-spread drainless depressions there also occur shrubs of black saxaul. Steep ledges or (T'chinks) add immensely to the inimitable beauty of the landscape. The western part of the chink is especially picturesque, which achieves 340 meters in elevation; its eroded precipice takes quite fanciful forms. These breakages, formed by the wind, have an almost whimsical character.

To visit the T'Chink you can drive from Nukus to Qon'ırat (Kungrad) and then up onto the plateau or go first to Shomanay and then head northwest towards Shamambet. You will see first the t'chink like some white dream-like apparition along the horizon.

NEARBY WATER BODIES

The Ustyurt (U'stırt) Plateau stretches between the Caspian Sea (left) and the Aral Sea (upper right quadrant). The Plateau is shared between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan with a small area in the south within Turkmenistan.

There are a number of bodies of water nearby the Plateau. To the lower left of the Map you can see the greenish-blue Karabogas Bay a shallow inundated depression in the northwestern corner of Turkmenistan, a bay on the edge the Caspian Sea, with a surface area of about 14,000 km².

To the east of this can be seen the dark Sarygamysh Lake (salt), situated in north central Turkmenistan with the northwest quarter of the lake in Uzbekistan.

The greenish area to the lake’s northeast is vegetation around the Amu Darya River, which once fed the Aral Sea to its north. Since the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers were diverted by irrigation projects, the Aral Sea has shrunken rapidly.

As of 2007 it had declined to around 10% of its original size, splitting into three separate lakes, two of which are now too salty to support fish.

The Aral in 1985


















Main Sources :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustyurt_Plateau
http://www.eosnap.com/tag/sarygamysh-lake/?gtlang=gl
http://www.autoreview.ru

KUNGRAD Soda Ash plant

KUNGRAD Soda Ash plant

After 4 year construction period starting in 2002 the Kungrad Soda Ash plant was commissioned in August 2006.

The plant, a joint venture between Chinese group China International Trust & Investment Company International Cooperation Company and Uzbekistan's UzKimyoSanoat (a major Uzbek chemical industry conglomerate) cost US$100 million to build and occupies 60 hectares, The plant has a projected production capacity of 100,000 tonnes of soda ash yearly.

Citic Pacific Ltd carried out the design and turn-key construction of the technological side of the plant (cost US$32.3 million) funded by a loan of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (90% of the contract cost) with the insurance provided by the Chinese Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, and a loan of the UzPromStroyBank (Uzbek Industrial Construction Bank, 10% of the contract cost) guaranteed by the Uzbek government.

General construction works were performed by local construction companies for UzKimyoSanoat.

The production of Kungrad Soda Plant covers domestic demand and export sales of soda ash, hydrate of sodium, and table salt.

Uzbekistan's current domestic demand for soda ash is 60,000-70,000 tonnes yearly.

The main consumers being the household chemical industry and the producers of construction materials and glass makers.

The resource base for Kungrad Soda Plant is the Barsakelmes salt deposit (explored reserves estimated at 131 million tonnes of common salt containing 97% of NaCl) and the Jamansay limestone deposit (explored reserves estimated at 70 million tonnes) both located in the north of Karakalpakstan near the industrial city of Kungrad.

They are currently producing 240-250 tons a day of high-quality product (equivalent to 85,000 tons of soda a year). The plant employs 1,300 people (making it the largest industrial employer in the Republic). Among the main buyers of the plant's products are the companies Quartz, PharmGlass, Gazalkent Oyna, Uzqurulishmateriallari, Uzkimyosanoat and Uzbekneftegaz.

It is on target this year (2009) to export over 36,000 tons of soda to overseas buyers in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Clients to date have included the Bryansk Chemical Company (Russia), Maylisuu Electric Lamp Plant (Kyrgyzstan), Power Global Engineering (Kazakhstan) and Letreh Invest (Turkmenistan).


Source:http://www.south.citic.com