Kumtor mine fully transferred to Kyrgyzstan: president

Bishkek, July 27, 2022. /Kabar/. For the 500 days of Sadyr Zhaparov's presidency, a special edition of the newspaper has been published, his press service said. It presents the main socio-economic indicators of the country and their dynamics and statistical data. For example, such topics as "Increase in the budget", "Return of the Kumtor mine to Kyrgyzstan", "Increase in payments in the social sphere" are included. "The return of the largest national wealth Kumtor to the balance of the state was really a turning point in the history of our country. The people's demand - Kumtor must become the people's property - has been fulfilled. Defending national interests should be just like that! It is important to emphasize that this is the result of the comprehensive work and effective defense of the interests of the country by a huge team headed by Akylbek Zhaparov, Dinara Kutmanova, Kamchybek Tashiev, Kurmankul Zulushev and Tengiz Bolturuk. Since May 2021, when we put Kumtor under external management, the budget started to receive net profits from the deposit. Before that, we were getting only symbolic dividends, to be more precise, $85 million over 20 years, but in the first seven months of 2021, the net profit was $323 million. This year we plan to make a profit of up to $500 million. Based on expert calculations, we plan to make about $5 billion profit from Kumtor in the next 10 years, which means we will produce from 160 to 200 tons of gold. This is a huge benefit and support to the budget. When the Kumtor mine was fully developed by the Kyrgyz side, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) took our Kyrgyzaltyn out of the list of trustworthy companies and refused to include Kyrgyz gold in the exchange trading. On May 3, 2022, the LBMA returned Kyrgyzaltyn's status as a reliable company. Kyrgyzstan was able to make progress not only on Kumtor, but also on Megacom. In an international court we were able to prove that the investment agreement on the cellular operator was corrupt and we defended the national interest," the article says.