Kyrgyzstan government is pushing to renegotiate terms with Canadian company Centerra Gold. See also March 5 post, “Centerra Gold risks Kyrgyzstan collapse” and February 27 post “Gold mining in the Stans”.
The Economist
A gravel road winds up in snowy switchbacks, past the tree line, to a model of efficiency rare in this impoverished Central Asian nation. At the gate, 4km (13,000 feet) above sea level, busloads of workers have their bags X-rayed for booze coming in or nuggets going out. Since 1997 they have pulled about 270 tonnes of gold from an open pit in the Tian Shan mountains near the Chinese border. In a good year the Kumtor mine accounts for 12% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP and half of its exports, while contributing nearly a tenth of the national budget.
Yet getting gold out of Kumtor is a pain, and not because of the high remoteness. Rather, Kyrgyzstan’s troubled politics holds back Kumtor and helps explain why foreign-run mines are so rare in a country brimming with gold and many other mineral deposits.