Centerra Gold (TSE:CG) fired another salvo at the government-supported group that is managing Centerra’s expropriated mine, the Kumtor open pit gold mine.
In the spring Centerra Gold’s Kumtor Mine was taken over by the Kyrgyz government authorities, which now adminsters it.
Today Centerra said the new mine plan for the pit could wreck the mine’s economics and harm worker safety.
“Statements by Kyrgyz officials since the government’s illegal seizure of the Kumtor Mine indicate that they are departing from the approved mine plan in ways that will cause irreversible damage. Based on recent reports, the government has also failed to adequately protect the mine’s infrastructure from flooding and other threats and may be facing production difficulties. Their actions, and threatened actions in pursuit of short-term profits at the expense of sustainability, place the long-term viability of the Kumtor Mine at grave risk and compromise the safety and livelihoods of its employees,” wrote Centerra in a news release.
Early this month Centerra faulted the mine’s operators with allowing too much water into the pit.
Centerra’s Kumtor was seized in May. Last month Centerra Gold reported a net loss of $851.7 million in the second quarter of 2021, compared to net earnings of $80.7 million in the second quarter of 2020, due to writing down Kumtor.
Centerra has launched arbitration against the new administrators of the mine charging wrongful expropriation under the rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.