Tag Archives: metals and mining

Azerbaijani AAM begins copper production

NOV. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Azerbaijani miner Anglo Asian Mining said it produced and shipped the first batch of copper concentrate from its Gedabek mine in the west of the country. Through the new copper flotation plant, inaugurated in October, the company aims to return to profitability, Reza Vaziri, the Anglo Asian’s CEO said in a statement. The market had a lukewarm reaction, and its share price in London remained at 5.13p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kumtor posts upbeat Q3 results, boosting Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian miner Centerra Gold said production and revenue at Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan’s largest gold mine, increased in the third quarter, countering continued low gold prices and giving the Kyrgyz economy a welcome boost.

Production grew to 3.2 tonnes of gold, up 9% from 2.9 tonnes in Q3 2014. This compared against relatively depressed gold prices meaning that Centerra’s revenues grew by 3%. Gold prices have fallen since the start of November by 6% to a six-year low of $34.37/gram.

In a statement on its website, Ian Atkinson, Centerra’s CEO, said: “Financially, the Company is in good shape with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $537m or

$461m, net of debt, at September 30, 2015.”

Importantly for Kyrgyzstan, Centerra’s tax contributions also rose. In the first nine months of 2015, Centerra paid $98.7m, a 20% increase compared to 2014.

Centerra is the largest taxpayer in Kyrgyzstan. Output at the Kumtor gold mine makes up 10% of GDP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

KAZ Minerals invest in Kazakh copper

NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakh copper producer, plans to build two hydro- metallurgical processing plants in Zhezkazgan, central Kazakhstan, to extract more copper from low value, media reported. The combined project will cost around $30m. KAZ Minerals is one of Kazakhstan’s most important companies and has been linked to the elite.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Centerra Gold

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On the stock markets, KAZ Minerals, formerly called Kazakhmys, was one of the biggest movers.

Its share price rose from 80p to 92p — a two-week high, apparently off the back of news that it will restructure some of its costs.

On the Canada stock market, shares in Centerra Gold recovered from a six-month low of 6.95 Canadian dollars after its core asset, the Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan announced better-than-expected results.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Polymetal raises Kazakh gold reserves and buys in Armenia

NOV. 13/16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian miner Polymetal upgraded gold reserve estimates at its Kyzyl mine in eastern Kazakhstan and said it had bought a 75% stake in Armenian diamond mine Lichkvaz that it didn’t already own.

Both the reserve upgrade at Kyzyl and the buyout of Lichkvaz will give the mining industries in Armenia and Kazakhstan a major boost.

At the Bakyrchik mine at its Kyzyl project, Polymetal said that a feasibility study had upgraded the size of gold reserves there by 8% to 29.2m tonnes.

Polymetal will run further exploration works until the end of 2016 and expects to reach full output capacity at the mine in 2019. Polymetal said it is ready to invest $328m for the next phase of the project.

Polymetal CEO Vitaly Nesis said in a statement: “With significantly reduced capital expenditure, compelling high-grade reserves and straight- forward execution plan, Kyzyl is set to become a significant free cash flow contributor for Polymetal.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Stock market: GHG, Nostrum, KAZ Minerals

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — As the Bulletin reports on its front page, Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG) listed on the London Stock Exchange with an initial share price of 170p on Nov. 9. The company listed 29% of its shares, valuing the company around £218m ($331m). By Friday its shares had dropped to 181p.

Oil and commodities companies lost ground on the London stock market after Brent and copper prices fell by 6% and 4.5% this week.

Linked to this fall in the price of Brent crude futures, Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas shares were down 16% closing at 367.5p. Nostrum recorded an 8% fall on Thursday, placing its shares among the worst performers on the FTSE 250.

Cooper producer KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, faired worse. Its shares fell by 20% over the week, closing at 80p.

Tethys Petroleum shares jumped by 53% on Monday following Olisol’s letter of intent to acquire its stakes, but finished the week down to 4.25p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Tajikistan reports on transparency in mining sector

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an intergovernmental organisation set up to improve transparency in mining and oil sectors, published its first report on Tajikistan which the authors said shone some light on the murky Tajik extractive sector.

Anti-corruption lobby groups have previously criticised the Tajik government for siphoning off cash from its metals sector and while the report was considered a step forward for transparency in Tajikistan, there were still many blank spots.

And the authors of the report made this clear.

“Three of the 14 companies in the EITI Report are partially state owned. Considerable details related to these companies are missing from the report due to the currently weak government systems for recording all company payments,” they wrote in the EITI report.

Tajikistan had been supposed to present its first report to the EITI in February, a deadline it missed.

A presentation on the report will be made in Dushanbe on Nov. 25.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Stock market: Roxi Petroleum, KAZ Minerals

NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Stock markets saw commodities-focused companies lose terrain this week, despite a brief surge in oil prices above $50/barrel on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan-focused oil company Roxi Petroleum lost 16% in one week closing at 7.88p, perhaps driven down by technical issues slowing down its drilling operations at the BNG contract area in the western part of the country.

After peaking at 122.4p on Tuesday, mining company KAZ Minerals shares were down 8.5% to 105.7p on Friday. KAZ Minerals used to be called Kazakhmys.

In Toronto, Centerra Gold shares lost 3.5% to 7.15 Canadian dollars, continuing a 3-week slump following debates on the formation of a new government in Kyrgyzstan. The Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan is Centerra’s main asset and the company is a major taxpayer in the country. Centerra has said, though, that production at Centerra would be down this year on earlier forecasts.

A new government has now been formed in Kyrgyzstan, hopefully giving Centerra a stable partner to work with.

Shares in Bank of Georgia were down 4.5% to £19.11 on Friday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

JOGMEC explores Kazakhstan

OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOG- MEC) signed a deal with local authorities in Kazakhstan to explore for rare earth materials in the Karaganda and Kostanai regions. Earlier this year, the Japanese ministry of industry closed a deal to build a rare earths production facility in the north of the country. Kazakhstan holds one of the world’s largest reserves of rare earths.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Kazakh miner to hit target

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed miner KAZ Minerals, formerly known as Kazakhmys, said it is on track to meet its production targets for 2015, despite a slight fall in production during the first nine months of the year. KAZ Minerals also said that it had increased its net debt by 18.8% to $1.9b in Q3. The company may be bullish on output at its copper and zinc mines in Kazakhstan but it has been hit by a fall in commodity prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)