Zinc project back on track

16 May 2003
Iran Zinc Production Company (IZPC)has issued a tender for the construction of a new zinc plant in Zanjan province with capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year (t/y). The plant has been offered for tender several times before, but project sources say the company believes that economic conditions are now more conducive for its development.

The new plant will be fed by oxide ore from the Angooran mine. IZPC has specified a preference for direct leach technology using either conventional purification or solvent extraction, electrowinning, melting and casing. The work is to be carried out through a turnkey contract. The client has also expressed a preference for finance to be arranged on a joint investment, build-operate-transfer (BOT) or buyback basis.

A 14 May deadline was set for prequalifications for the project and bids are expected to be submitted in the fourth quarter. The plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2006. The consultant is the local Barsoo Engineering Company.

IZPC, then called Iran Zinc Development Company, last launched a tender for the plant in 1999. International companies expressed interest in the project, but are understood to have been deterred by the prevailing investment climate. With the issue of the new Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion act, the company has decided to relaunch the tender.

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