Zarafshon ( uz, Zarafshon / Зарафшон, fa, زرافشان) is a city in the center of

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

Navoiy Region Navoiy Region ( uz, Навоий вилояти, Navoiy viloyati, russian: Навоийская область) is one of the regions of Uzbekistan. It is located in the central north/northwest of the country. It covers an area of (a large part ...

. Administratively, it is a district-level city, that includes the

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

Muruntau. It has an area of and it has 85,100 inhabitants (2021). Located in the

Kyzylkum desert The Kyzylkum Desert ( uz, Qizilqum, Қизилқум, قىزىلقۇم; kk, Қызылқұм, Qyzylqūm, قىزىلقۇم) is the 15th largest desert in the world. Its name means ''Red Sand'' in Turkic languages. It is located in Central Asia, i ...

, it receives water from the

Amudarya The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin name or Greek ) is a major river in Central A ...

by a 220-km pipeline. Zarafshon is calle
"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 was run by th
Zarafshan-Newmont Joint Venture
a foreign direct investment by

Newmont Mining Corporation Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado (at the time the largest U.S. investor in Uzbekistan - it was also the first major Western investment in the region since the breakup of the Soviet Union). Uzbekistan expropriated the company's assets in 2006 and by 2007 had taken full ownership of the mine. Zarafshan Airport is served by

Uzbekistan Airlines JSC Uzbekistan Airways, operating as ''Uzbekistan Airways'' ( uz, Oʻzbekiston Havo Yoʻllari, ; russian: Узбекские Авиалинии), is the flag carrier airline of Uzbekistan, headquartered in Tashkent. From its hub at Islam Kari ...

with direct daily flights to and from

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...

References

Populated places in Navoiy Region Cities in Uzbekistan {{Uzbekistan-geo-stub