To Zarafshan - Left:   On Thursday 14 September, the Tour group took a morning flight from Tashkent to Zarafshan (left), the city servicing the Muruntau mine.   The afternoon was taken up with a series of presentations on the operations of the Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Combinat, the principal of which is the Muruntau Mine, and the geology and mineralogy of the Muruntau and related gold mines.   At the end of this sesssion the group was taken to the local museum to view displays on the district and the history of Muruntau. Alexander Luzanovsky (pictures above, right), one of the geologists of the discovery team, discusses the history of exploration and demonstrates one of the first geological maps of the deposit compiled in the early days of the delineation program.
Photographs by Mike Porter.