The Tajik Aluminium Company (; ), abbreviated as TALCO ( Tajik/

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: ТАЛКО) headquartered in Tursunzoda,

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

, runs the largest aluminium manufacturing plant in Central Asia, and is Tajikistan's chief industrial asset. The President of Tajikistan,

Emomali Rahmon Emomali Rahmon ( ; born 5 October 1952), born Emomali Sharipovich Rahmanov, is a Tajik politician who has served as the President of Tajikistan since 1994, having previously led the country as Chairman of the Supreme Assembly (Tajikistan), Su ...

, personally oversees TALCO and according to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', "Each year, TALCO produces hundreds of millions of dollars in profits that are routed to a

shell company A shell corporation is a company or corporation with no significant assets or operations often formed to obtain financing before beginning business. Shell companies were primarily vehicles for lawfully hiding the identity of their beneficial ...

in the

British Virgin Islands The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

". According to a leaked cable written by the US ambassador in Tajikistan, this shell company is controlled by Rahmon. Tajikistan has no native aluminium ore, so the raw material for the plant must be imported. Construction of the plant proper began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminium took place on 31 March 1975. Tajik news agency AVESTA reported that the plant produced a total of of aluminium in 2006. In 2012, TALCO is sticking to its plan to produce 332,500 tonnes of primary aluminium, which would restore production approximately to 2010 levels after a 20% decline to 277,584 tonnes in 2011. TALCO consumes roughly 40% of the country's electrical power, and a 2002 study found it responsible for notable

fluorine Fluorine is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at Standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions as pale yellow Diatomic molecule, diatomic gas. Fluorine is extre ...

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of Body of water, water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and ...

in the region.

References

{{Reflist Aluminium companies of Tajikistan Mining in Tajikistan Metal companies of the Soviet Union