Uranium Deposit Tash-Bulak
At the Tash-Bulak deposit in the Ton district of the Issyk-Kul region, reclamation work has not yet been carried out.
More than a year ago, residents of Balakchi and the Ton district opposed the planned uranium extraction at the Tash-Bulak deposit.
The government instructed to suspend work at the uranium deposit until the completion of an environmental assessment for the Kyzyl-Ompul area, located in the Ton district of the Issyk-Kul region and the Kochkor district of the Naryn region.
The deposit is intended to be developed by the company "UraZia in Kyrgyzstan," which received a license for geological exploration in 2013. Radioactive sand was supposed to be sent to the Kara-Balti Mining and Processing Plant, where uranium and other substances would be extracted from it.
“All the purified material will be placed back, reclaimed, the soil-vegetation layer will be restored, and perennial grasses will be planted to restore pasture areas,” the State Committee stated.
The development was planned to be conducted at a depth of 25 meters, where reserves of radioactive substances are located. There are about 3,500 tons of uranium at the deposit, as well as phosphorus, zirconium, and titanomagnetite. The latter substance is the most abundant in the deposit—over one and a half million tons.
The radiation background at the deposit ranges from 25 to 120 microsieverts per hour. In the adjacent area, several kilometers away, a background of 30 microsieverts was recorded, and in some areas, up to 200 microsieverts.
The site is in close proximity to the Orto-Tokoy Reservoir and Lake Issyk-Kul.
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