Kyrgyz lawmakers endorse NGO's environmental complaints over Kumtor Gold Mine

Bishkek - Both the Kyrgyz government and the parliament took on board this week concerns expressed by environmentalists that the Kumtor gold mine operated by Canadian Centerra Gold Corporation poses serious threats to livelihoods and the environment, including causing the melting of two glaciers in the area.

The Kyrgyz officials were responding to a report prepared by a commission made up of state officials and NGOs exploring water quality around the gold exploitation published in the end of January (1). The commission report included an annex very critical of Centerra, accused of contaminating local waters and glaciers while hiding evidence of such negative impacts from public oversight, authored by US based independent expert Robert Moran (2).

“Our expert commission identified a whole set of problems and risks at the Kumtor mine so we provided many recommendations and even advised to temporarily suspend operations until further analyses are conducted and the problems are solved,” says Kalia Moldogazieva, deputy head of the state commission and director of HDC Tree of Life, a Bankwatch partner in Kyrgystan (3). „We were very happy to see that during a meeting between our government and NGOs taking place February 14, the Vice Prime Minister basically agreed to the necessity of all our recommendations and even added clear deadlines for their implementation.”

On February 15, deputies in the Kyrgyz parliament have even called for a revision of the 2009 contract between Centerra and the Kyrgyz state quoting explicitly environmental concerns raised in the state commission report, alongside worries about the limited economic benefits accrued to the Kyrgyz people from the gold exploitation.

The Kyrgyz officials’ stances come in the midst of a worker strike at the Kumtor mines begun on February 7 as workers fight against contributions for the national social fund to be deducted from their pay-checks. Centerra officials announced yesterday that the strike has led to the halting of Kumtor operations apart of basic maintenance levels (4).

“The authorities’ response to environmental concerns is very much welcome,” says Bankwatch’s Central Asia officer Vladena Martsynkevych. „We are also hoping that these recent developments will make the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – which in November 2010 offered Centerra Gold a 150 million US dollars three-year revolving debt facility – reconsider its approach to investments in mining projects: support for fast-profit gold operations, as in this case, may be very tempting, but a public bank should rather focus on helping resource-rich countries diversify their economies. At the same time the EBRD should steer away from mining projects that bring considerable risks, but do not demonstrate significant additionality in terms of addressing environmental and social problems.”

Notes to the editors:

1. The Interagency Commission – made up of Kyrgyz NGOs and state agencies’ representatives and created by governmental decree – conducted a site visit and sampling of water quality in September 2011. Read the state commission report at: http://treelife.org.kg/index.php/ru/kumtor

2. Last fall, Robert Moran was invited by Kyrgyz environmental NGOs to join the state commission visiting the mine but was finally refused entrance to the mine without an explanation. Read Moran’s report at: http://bankwatch.org/sites/default/files/Kumtor-MoranReport-31Jan2012.pdf

and Robert Moran’s resume at: http://www.mineriaysociedad.unsj.edu.ar/descargas/cv_expositores/8_20100...

3. See the website of Kyrgyz NGO “Human Development Center (HDC) Tree of Life”: http://treelife.org.kg/

4. Kumtor is the biggest gold mine operated by a Western company in Central Asia and gold extracted here accounts for approximately 90 percent of Centerra’s annual output.

For more information, contact

Vladlena Martsynkevych
Bankwatch Central Asia officer
vladlena AT bankwatch.org