APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting tension in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector, media reports said that protesters blocking a road in the Talas region of north Kyrgyzstan clashed briefly with police. The protesters were demanding compensation for alleged environmental damage from the mining company.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — TALCO, the Tajik aluminium smelter and the country’s largest single industrial asset, has denied an earlier ministry of finance statement that accused it of being on the brink of bankruptcy, local media reported. TALCO is controversial because of its links to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s not just Western mining companies in Kyrgyzstan that have come under pressure to pay extra fines. Kyrgyz media reported that the local authorities in northern Kyrgyzstan want the Chinese-run Taldy Bulak Levoberezhni gold mine to pay $143m every year for environmental damage. Chinese firms are generally unpopular in Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Canada-based Fraser Institute has ranked Kyrgyzstan as the worst place to do business for mining companies in its annual report, media reported. Their assessment highlights the problems that Western gold mining companies have had in protecting their assets in Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
FEB. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament ratified a deal to split control of the Kumtor gold mine 50:50 with Canadian miner Centerra Gold. The deal is vital to Kyrgyzstan as Kumtor is its single biggest economic asset. Protests over the ownership have forced Centerra Gold to cede increasingly large stakes in the mine to Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
JAN. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s government was set to discuss a tentative deal with Toronto-listed Centerra Gold over joint ownership of the Kumtor gold mine. The discussion may resolve the long-running ownership dispute. Kyrgyzstan could potentially swap its 32.7% stake in Centerra Gold for a 50% stake directly in Kumtor.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
DEC. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArcelorMittal will cut hundreds of jobs at its steel plant in Temirtau, central Kazakhstan as it attempts to stem loses from declining global demand.
A Conway Bulletin correspondent in Almaty said the local trade union had estimated that 2,500 jobs would be lost, roughly 17% of the workforce. Although the numbers were not confirmed by ArcelorMittal, the management did agree that jobs would be cut.
Temirtau is a classic monogorod, the Russian term given to cities that survive on one industry, and the job losses will deal a heavy blow economically and psychologically.
The Termirtau steel plant is one of the biggest non-energy projects in the country and also where Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev worked before moving into politics.
In a statement on the company’s website, Vijay Mahadevan, CEO of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, said orders for the company’s products had fallen by 12.5% in the last two years triggering the cuts.
General global demand for steel products remains weak and one of the factory’s key clients, Iran, has been suffering from heavy sanctions that have undermined its economy further.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 166, published on Jan. 8 2014)
DEC. 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan filed a $304m claim for environmental damage against Toronto-listed Centerra Gold’s operation at the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country. The claim is probably designed to pile pressure on Centerra Gold to relinquish a larger stake in the Kumtor mine to the Kyrygz state.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — China plans to invest a reported $8b into Kazakhstan’s coal mining sector, Kairat Karmanov, the head of the state-owned Kaznex Invest, told journalists. He said the investments are earmarked for Kazakhstan’s industrial heartland around Karaganda. China has been investing heavily in Kazakhstan over the past decade.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 163, published on Dec. 4 2013)
NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-based metals and mining company ENRC completed its de-listing from the London stock exchange. The British financial authorities had started investigating ENRC earlier this year after concerns about its corporate governance. This triggered a move by the three Kazakh founders of ENRC to de-list it.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
