Zarafshan

Zarafshan is a town of over 68,000 inhabitants within the center of Uzbekistan's Navoiy Region. Located within the Kyzylkum wilderness, it receives water from the Amudarya through a 220-km pipeline. Zarafshan is known as "the gold capital of Uzbekistan". It is home of the Navoi Mining & Metallurgy Combinat's Central Mining Administration, charged with mining and processing gold from the nearby Muruntau open-pit mine.

Between 1995 and 2006 the Muruntau gold mining and processing operation turned into run by means of the Zarafshan-Newmont Joint Venture, a overseas direct funding via Newmont Mining Corporation of Denver, Colorado on the time the largest U.S. Investor in Uzbekistan - it changed into also the primary important Western funding in the area since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Uzbekistan expropriated the business enterprise’s belongings in 2006 and by using 2007 had taken complete ownership of the mine. Zarafshan Airport is served via Uzbekistan Airlines with direct daily flights to and from Tashkent.