Redeveloped mining site was handed over to the Kyrgyz communities - Project management was done by G.E.O.S. branch office WISUTEC

At the beginning of 2022, the remediation works of the former uranium ore deposit Shekaftar in the west of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan were completed. In January, the final approval of the remediated mining site took place. The approval procedure was attended by representatives of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Disaster Management, the environmental authority, the municipal administration, the district administration as well as the German project managers of the G.E.O.S. branch office WISUTEC.

On the site of several hectares, approximately 500,000 tons of tailings were relocated and 7 mining shafts were permanently backfilled and closed over a period of 16 months. The project managers handed over the former tailings area to the community of Shekaftar, now cleaned up and without radionuclide-containing legacies. In the future, the site is to be used for agriculture and construction. The first houses have already been built.

The "Project Management Unit (PMU) for implementation of remediation projects in the Kyrgyz Republic (Min-Kush and Shekaftar)" is part of an internationally financed programme to rehabilitate the legacy of uranium mining of the former Soviet Union on the territory of the countries Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The project was financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The execution planning and tendering for the project were already managed in 2019 by the PMU of the EBRD under the leadership of the key experts of the G.E.O.S. branch WISUTEC. The construction works were carried out by the Kyrgyz construction company LLC "LOI" from September 2020 to December 2021 under the supervision of the G.E.O.S. experts. The total construction budget was around 2 million euros.