Kumtor company was fined 261.7 billion soms by a court decision for storing mining waste on glaciers. An unprecedented decision was made yesterday by the judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Bishkek, Albina Dzheenbekova.
The court considered the civil claim of Aibek Sarybaev, Nariste Kalchaev, Ablas Jeenbekov, Kemelbek Kutmanov against Kumtor Gold Company CJSC and recognized the actions of storing waste on Davydov and Lysiy glaciers during development of Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan illegal.
A decision was made to collect 261,719,674 soms from Kumtor Gold Company in favor of the state. The court also ruled to collect a fee of 1,308,653 billion soms.
It is worth noting that on May 6, the deputies amended the law on Joint Stock Companies and the Criminal Code. The essence of the changes comes down to one thing — «in case of a threat to life and the environment, external management is introduced for three months.» The bill was submitted for public discussion on April 30, but already on May 6 the document was adopted in three readings at once.
The initiator of the amendments, MP Akylbek Japarov, said in Parliament that the company had already caused $ 3.2 billion damage. This amount, obviously, coincides with the amount of the lawsuit filed by four activists for a reason. One of the plaintiffs is the son of the Chairwoman of the State Committee for Ecology and Climate, Dinara Kutmanova, and also a member of the state commission on Kumtor.
Against the background of the court decision, Centerra’s shares, which Kyrgyzstan also holds, have already dropped.
