Looks like some very promosing news!!!!

Oxus opens Uzbek facility, first gold seen in days
TASHKENT, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Amantaytau Goldfields (AGF (Paris: FR0000125924 - news) ), Uzbekistan's venture with London-listed Oxus Gold Plc (LSE: OXS.L - news) , has launched a Phase I facility and expects the first casting of gold in a few days, an Oxus official said on Wednesday.

Alexander Polikashin, Oxus chief representative in mineral-rich Central Asia, told Reuters that with the commissioning of an opencast gold mine and a gold extraction facility at AFG, the Phase I project will achieve its targeted annualised level of output in March or April 2004.

He said the Phase I aims to process annually one million tonnes of auriferous ores and produce 190,000 ounces of gold.

Oxus and the Uzbek government own half each in AGF that will operate in the Kyzylkum desert in central Uzbekistan.

The construction of the complex had been financed by a $36 million loan which Oxus obtained from a consortium of Western banks in April 2003.

Oxus has said earlier that as operations under its open-mine Phase I project in Uzbekistan get underway it will launch in a few years the next phase, estimated to cost over $40 million, to develop the deposit underground.

Oxus has the right to develop several gold deposits in Uzbekistan. The Amantaytau, Uzunbulak and Vysokovoltnoye fields in the central Kyzylkum desert are estimated to hold together 84 tonnes of gold and 258 tonnes of silver.

Besides, Oxus also plans to develop non-ferrous deposits in southern Uzbekistan rich in zink, lead, copper and silver.

Uzbekistan, among the world's top 10 gold producers, producers annually over 82 tonnes of the metal

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