DUSHANBE, April 25, Asia-Plus  -- Addressing the joint session of the parliament on April 25, President Emomali Rahmon proposed to announce a tender for development of Tajikistan''s Big Bolshoi Koni Mansour silver deposit. 

The Big Koni Mansour deposit has possible silver reserves of 55,000 tons, the president said.  

Rahmon noted that 114 licenses have to date been granted for development of different deposits.  However, the majority of companies that were granted licenses have practically not been engaged in development of the deposits. 

“Thus, work on exploring [ruby] reserves of the Snezhny deposit has been carried out for already twelve years, while the ruby mining has not yet started,” the president said.  “In the meantime, precious stones from this deposit are being stolen and smugglers are being detained with them outside the country.” 

The head of state demanded that control over granting licenses should be tightened.