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Kentor Gold top managers visit Kyrgyzstan

14/04-2011 13:01, Bishkek ? 24.kg news agency , by Tatiana ORLOVA

Board of Directors of Australian-based gold mining company Kentor Gold OJSC came to Kyrgyzstan to study whether it should continue to invest in the country, as stated by the company.

Reportedly, the company has not resold a single licenses during 14 years of work in Kyrgyzstan. This fact distinguishes ?geology speculators? from honest investors. Activity of Kentor Gold is focused on work in Central Asia and first of all in Kyrgyzstan. The company has been working in Kyrgyzstan since 1997. At that time, the company, together with the state enterprise, created Kyrgyz Geophysical Expedition, which explored 10 geological areas and passed the received information to Geological Information Fund of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the KR. The company spent $10.8 million for exploration.

Visitors are interested in Andash deposit in the Talas province, where the company has 80 percent of shares. The company has not been able to start operation in the deposit for several years, despite the readiness of the site for the mining process. Experts note that nowadays, the project is one of the best prepared mining fields in the Kyrgyz Republic: pre-project stage permits are obtained (feasibility study and environment impact assessment procedure); examination of previously approved changes in the project is being prepared; company purchased heavy road and building equipment (36 units); it also ordered the production of basic equipment (costing $37.5 million), targeting production in summer 2012. The company is ready to invest $106 million in the project within next 18 months. It is estimated that company?s contributions to the budget since the production beginning would amount to KGS 1.5 billion per year. But practically, investors faced with a situation when normal operation of mining company is being blocked. Thus, in the case with Andash project, local population does not let carrying out even environmental study of the project.

Arrived top managers, financiers and mining engineers will consider the possibility of investment into and implementation of other projects. Negotiations will result in increase or, on the contrary, decrease of investments in Kyrgyzstan.

Kentor Gold was founded in 1997 and reached Australian Stock Exchange in 2005. Market capitalization totals KGS 7 billion.

URL: http://eng.24.kg/business/2011/04/14/17550.html


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