The Tajikistan Aluminum Company's smelter complex, known as TALCO, is based in the town of Tursunzade, some 50 kilometers west of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. Tajikistan, the poorest of the 15 former Soviet republics, relies heavily on the smelter's earnings. Official data shows that aluminum accounted for 57 percent of all Tajik hard currency export revenues from January-October of 2012.
