Mitsui, Newmont Plan Uzbekistan Venture

Mitsui and Co., a major Japanese trading company, and U.S.-based Newmont Gold Co. are planning a $200 million project to develop gold mines in Uzbekistan, a Mitsui spokesman said Thursday.

The spokesman said the companies will soon set up a firm to study four promising mines near Tashkent, the capital. He said the sites’ combined deposits are estimated at 240 tons, worth about $3 billion at current market value, according to a preliminary study.

The venture is the first project launched by a Japanese company in the former Soviet republic, Mitsui said. It is scheduled to start production from late 1999 to early 2000.

Uzbekistan, which contains the seventh-largest gold deposits in the world, is also rich in other mining resources such as silver and copper.