JULY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani miner Anglo Asian said production shrank by 5.9% to 33,837 ounces in the first half of 2016, compared to the same period last year. The company, listed in London, said it will keep its production target at 73,000/77,000 ounces for 2016 as it expects a boost in the second half.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said that the state was ready to buy the Aimroc mining company, which is alleged to be linked to his family. The company closed in 2014, as it ran into financial difficulties exploiting the Chovdar mine in western Azerbaijan. Aimroc’s name appeared in numerous investigations that linked its opaque offshore business to the presidential family. By presidential decree state-owned Azerigold will take over Aimroc.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan-based miner Anglo Asian posted a record production year in 2015, mining 72,000 ounces of gold, a 19% increase compared to 2014. The company’s revenues also grew by 15%, despite lower gold prices. Anglo Asian said it plans to produce even more gold in 2016 and plans to cut costs further thanks to the depreciation of the manat currency at the end of last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Residents of Ieli, a small village in the Svaneti region in the north of Georgia, demonstrated against a gold mining company that had started excavation work in the area. Dozens of protesters said that they didn’t believe that Optical System, a St Kitts and Nevis-based company, had a valid licence. The local government later showed that the company had been given an exploration licence in 2005.
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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)
MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Switzerland-based miner Glencore said it is considering selling its share in the Vasilkovskoye gold mine in Kazakhstan for around $2b. Glencore owns 70% of Kazzinc, the company that operates Vasilkovskoye which is located 300 km north-west of Astana. According to unnamed sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the buyers could be Chinese investors. China has been looking to buy Kazakh gold.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
BISHKEK, APRIL 28 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed miner Centerra Gold said that police in Bishkek have raided the offices of its wholly-owned Kumtor Gold Company, reigniting a vicious row between the Canadian company and the Kyrgyz government.
According to Kyrgyz officials, police were looking to collect documents related to allegations of financial misconduct by Kumtor.
Centerra said that the government had previously complained about a financial transaction it carried out in 2013. It once again refuted any allegations of criminal activities.
“The company reiterates that such inter-corporate dividend complied with the 2009 agreements governing the Kumtor Project and all applicable Kyrgyz Republic laws. Any claims to the contrary are without merit,” Centerra said in a statement.
On news of the raid, the Toronto stock market briefly suspended Centerra Gold’s shares.
Centerra said mine operations at Kumtor, which is located in the mountainous east of the country, were unaffected.
The Kyrgyz government owns a 32.7% stake in Centerra.
It has been trying to turn this stake in Centerra into a direct stake in Kumtor, the country’s single biggest asset, triggering a major row.
Kumtor represents around 7% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP and is the country’s most valuable asset.
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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)
APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gold miner Polymetal said its output declined by 4% in the first quarter of the year to 260,000 ounces of gold equivalent, also due to a sharp decline in its Kazakh operations. At the Varvara gold project in north-western Kazakhstan, Polymetal produced 14,000 ounces of gold, 32% less than in Q1 2015, due to lower grade stockpiles. Polymetal said its Kyzyl gold project in north-eastern Kazakhstan is on track to start production this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)
MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz government approved exploration plans laid out by Australian miner White Cliff Minerals for its Aucu gold project. The agreement extends the exploration licence for White Cliff to 2020. Aucu, located in west Kyrgyzstan, holds an initial inferred resource of 4.83m tonnes of gold. Despite friction with its biggest foreign investor, Centerra Gold, at the Kumtor gold mine, Kyrgyzstan is still trying to woo foreign companies.
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(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)
MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan-focused oil company Roxi Petroleum hit the headlines with a daily increase in its share price of over 10%, although the company did not publish updates regarding its operations at the BNG contract area in Western Kazakhstan.
Still rallying on positive results and an uptake in commodity prices, KAZ Minerals also fared well. The Motley Fool financial website said that, together with Glencore and Fresnillo, KAZ Minerals “could be a great long- term play on a mining sector recovery.”
Centerra Gold, a Kyrgyzstan-based Canadian miner, performed poorly again, and the company blames it on the uncertainty regarding negotiations the ownership structure with the Kyrgyz government.
“The uncertainty about renegotiating the future ownership profile of the Kumtor mine with the Kyrgyz government weighed heavily on the stock,” Mining Weekly quoted CEO Scott Perry as saying.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bank of Georgia shares were up 6.9% this week, closing at £18.14 on Thursday. The bank has followed a downward trend since the beginning of the year, but news of the merger between its corporate banking and investment management departments lifted its shares.
BGEO Group, the holding that owns Bank of Georgia, said it is confident that the move will boost returns and reduce risk.
Tethys Petroleum shares jumped by 19.7% to 2.25p off the back of stable oil prices, leading an upbeat crowd of oil and gas companies involved in the region. Only Nostrum continued the slump.
Among miners, Centerra Gold posted a significant jump of 7.2% to 6.73 Canadian dollars after the Mongolian parliament unblocked negotiations over ownership and licences linked to one of their gold mines in the north of the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)
