KAZAKHSTAN TO SELL MORE METALLURGICAL PLANTS TO WESTERN FIRMS.

Kazakhstan’s industry and trade minister Harry Steuck announced yesterday that the government is preparing a merger of four large nonferrous metallurgical plants into a single company prior to inviting Western companies to take over the new conglomerate. The four are the Zyryan lead plant, the Ust-Kamenogorsk lead and zinc plant, and the Irtysh and Leninogorsk polymetallic plants, all of which work with rich deposits situated in eastern Kazakhstan. Last year, Kazakhstan unified three chromium plants into a conglomerate which it then turned over to the Japan Chromium Corporation in a move that irritated Russia, which had largely depended on Kazakh chromium. (Interfax, April 11; Delovaya Rossiia, April 9)

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