Kyrgyzstan plans to increase gold production at Kumtor mine

Bishkek, May 18, 2022 / Kabar /. Head of the national company "Heritage of the Great Nomads" Tengiz Bolturuk in an interview with the Ala-Too 24 TV channel spoke about the work being done at the Kumtor gold mine. He said that this year it is planned to extract 17.5 tons of gold. Tengiz Bolturuk said that there is an opinion in society that little gold was mined last year - only 14.5 tons adding that these 14.5 tons were the plan of Centerra Gold Inc. “It is important to emphasize here that these 14.5 tons were laid by Centerra itself, we just implemented this plan. In the same year, we plan to increase production up to 17.5 tons. But most importantly, we have changed the mining strategy. We will not mine gold close to the glacier. We plan not to touch it. As a result of research, we came to the conclusion that in this case we can lose about 70 tons. But there are about 106 tons of gold in the tailing dump. We are currently working on mining technologies there. We plan to produce about 65 tons, which will be able to compensate for the difference,” he said. Tengiz Bolturuk also added that by 2024 it is planned to develop an underground mine, from where up to 3-4 tons of gold can be mined per year. “There are deposits underground. We have started these developments. There are very rich deposits underground,” he concluded. Earlier Tengiz Bolturuk acted as interim external manager of Kumtor Gold Company CJSC. The Kumtor mine is one of the largest gold mines in Central Asia. It has been operating since May 1997 and was owned by the Canadian mining company Centerra Gold. On 14 May 2021, President Sadyr Zhaparov signed into a bill allowing for temporary government control over the mine. In response, Centerra Gold launched arbitration against Kyrgyzstan over the mine. Kyrgyzstan took full control of the Kumtor gold mine after a series of legal disputes over the past year.