Tag Archives: metals and mining

Stock market: Central Asia Metals, KAZ Minerals

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Copper prices dipped below the psychological threshold of $2/lb in mid January, for the first time since 2009, and it has bit of a roller-coaster ride since.

Shares of Central Asia Metals and KAZ Minerals, two Kazakhstan– focused producers, have followed copper’s ups and downs.

As shown in the graph above, shares in KAZ Minerals, which mines copper in northern and eastern Kazakhstan, have fluctuated more dramatically with copper prices.

Shares in Central Asia Metals, have been more stable.

With copper prices now sliding back towards $2/lb, share prices for both Central Asia Metals and KAZ Minerals are falling. This week, they were down 5.3% and 9% respectively.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Orsu reveals Q1 results in Kazakhstan

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-listed miner Orsu Metals lost $437,000 in the first quarter of 2016, cutting its losses by around 50% from the same period last year. Most of the company’s losses are now booked for “assets held for sale”. Last month, Orsu agreed to sell its Karchiga and Kogodai mines in Kazakhstan to UAE-registered Karasat Trading for around $10m. After announcing the sale, Orsu de-listed from London’s AIM.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Glencore to sell Kazakh mine

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)

Kazakhstan plans mining auction

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kazakh mining government agency said it will auction 101 gold, copper, manganese and other precious metals mines on June 16. The auction, Kazakhstan’s second, will be conducted within the framework of the International Mining and Metallurgical Congress. Last year’s auction earned the state budget around 1.5b tenge ($4.5m).

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Centerra looks to diffuse row with Kyrgyzstan over Kumtor

BISHKEK, MAY 4 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) – Scott Perry, CEO of Canadian miner Centerra Gold, invited the Kyrgyz government to meet with him to discuss their differences, less than a week after police in Bishkek raided the company’s offices looking for evidence of financial crimes.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Perry said the government has not responded to Centerra’s offer to hold talks.

He also reiterated the company line that Kumtor’s dividend payment to Centerra in 2013 was perfectly legal.

“The rattling of the cage is without merit,” Mr Perry said of the police raid in Bishkek.

Last week, police raided the offices of Kumtor Gold Company (KGC), wholly-owned by Centerra. They were looking for documents linked to a dividend payment of $200m that KGC paid to Centerra in December 2013.

At the end of last year, the authorities sentenced Dilger Zhaparov, former board member of Kyrgyzaltyn, a state-owned mining company which has stakes in Centerra, to three years in prison for authorising the dividend payment.

During the police raid last week, Centerra’s shares were briefly suspended on the Toronto stock exchange. Many analysts interpreted the raid and the Kyrgyz allegation of financial crime against Centerra as more positioning. Kyrgyzstan has been trying to increase its control over the gold mine, the country’s single biggest industrial asset, for years.

This week, Centerra also posted quarterly results which showed a fall in gold production because of a drop in quality of mined ore. Sales also lagged because of a delay in gold shipments to Kyrgyzaltyn, which trades Kumtor’s gold, in March.

Low gold prices hit revenues, which dropped by 66% to $73.2m, compared to last year.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kyrgyzstan and Centerra row

MAY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian miner Centerra Gold, owner of the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan, once again said that it had not broken any rules in 2013 when it made a dividend payment . It was responding to a raid by police on the Kumtor office in Bishkek. Police were apparently sent to the Kumtor office specifically to search for any evidence of financial crime. Kyrgyzstan wants to increase its stake in Kumtor.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Armenia gold reserve go up

APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gold miner Polymetal said that its Lichkvaz project in Armenia holds 18.1 tonnes of gold, up 17% from a previous assessment. Last November, Polymetal bought the 75% stake it didn’t own in Lichkvaz for $9.7m, gaining full ownership in the project. Outside Russia, Polymetal operates in Armenia and Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Stock market: Centerra gold

MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Centerra Gold shares rebounded 5% to 6.93 Canadian dollars last Friday after the regulator of the Toronto Stock Exchange briefly halted trading the day before, when news came through of a police raid at the office of a Centerra- owned company in Kyrgyzstan.

The stock continued to float around 7 Canadian dollars, settling on 7.18 yesterday, despite what could be regarded as poor quarterly results.

Centerra, though, still handed out its quarterly dividend of 0.04 Canadian dollars, in line with previous payments, which is something that other companies in the region have been dodging over the past few months if results have been lower-then-expected.

Low gold prices and slower-than-expected gold production have hit the company’s performance.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kyrgyz police raids Centerra

APRIL 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-listed miner Centerra Gold said that Kyrgyz police have raided the Bishkek offices of its wholly owned Kumtor Gold Company, reigniting a vicious row that has involved the miner and the government. For years, Centerra and the government have rowed about ownership of the Kumtor gold mine. Kumtor accounts for around 7% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP and is the country’s largest industrial asset.

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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Kazakhstan’s KAZ Minerals improves

APRIL 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Kazakh miner KAZ Minerals said it increased production of copper cathode by 12.6% in the first quarter of 2016, to 21,500 tonnes. Copper cathode sales also increased by 4% to $106.5m. Net debt grew by 7.6% to $2.4b on a quarterly basis because of the company’s investments in its two new mines at Bozshakol and Aktogay.

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(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)