The State Committee for Ecology of the Republic of Uzbekistan and G.E.O.S. signed a contract for cooperation on the remediation of two former uranium mining sites in Uzbekistan - activities to start in November 2021

In September 2021, the State Committee for Ecology of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the management of G.E.O.S. signed a contract to cooperate on the remediation of the former uranium mining sites of Yangiabad and Kharkesar in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Yangiabad and Kharkesar are places where the former Soviet Union mined uranium until the end of the 1960s. Since the end of mining the activities and a clean-up programme, the sites have been idle and are now to be permanently remediated in compliance with the principles of "international best practice".

The three-year remediation project is financed by the Environmental Remediation Account for Central Asia (ERA) fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The experts of G.E.O.S. branch WISUTEC in Chemnitz are in charge of the project management as well as the construction supervision of the remediation works. WISUTEC's decades of experience in the field of uranium mine remediation will be applied in the management work, in the implementation planning, in the tender management and in the construction supervision.

The WISUTEC engineers are particularly familiar with the Central Asian region. With their expertise, they will support the Uzbek partners on site in and hands-on. The work is being carried out in close cooperation with the EBRD Head Office in London and the Uzbek partners. The first specialists will be on site in the rehabilitation areas as early as November 2021 to start the work.