Former managers of Kumtor Gold Company have remotely shut down all the main vital systems of the mine, endangering the lives of the employees there. The external manager of the company Tengiz Bolturuk told journalists today.
According to him, more than 3,000 employees turned out to be hostages of Centerra Gold Inc.
Tengiz Bolturuk said that on May 15, at approximately 19.00, all user access to computers of Kumtor Gold Company CJSC was remotely blocked. This fact was revealed by employees of the maintenance operation department of the company.
«They drew up a report on automated production failure at Kumtor mine. External interference in the internal system of Kumtor Gold Company was registered. In particular, users’ access to such systems as Ellipse, RMsoft, Gemcom and others was remotely disabled. This has led to the fact that to date operation of Kumtor mine was switched to manual mode. Despite this, we managed to get the situation under control. Kumtor is currently operating,» the external manager said.
He assured that activities at the mine would continue and Kumtor Gold Company will fulfill all obligations to employees and partners.
According to Tengiz Bolturuk, «the worst is that Centerra Gold Inc. turned off the systems for monitoring the condition of the sides of the open pit where the ore is mined, and monitoring of the movement of glaciers.»
He called it «a mean move.»
«By their actions, Canadian investors have put the lives of employees at risk. Unfortunately, there are tragic events in the history of the mine. In 2012, the movement of Lysii glacier led to destruction of the shift camp and warehouses, there were no casualties then. Restoration of the infrastructure cost the shareholders $ 70 million. In 2019, the tragedy repeated, two mine workers became its victims. Being aware and remembering all this, I consider the act of Centerra Gold Inc. as criminal,» Tengiz Bolturuk said.
He added that the acts on external interference were handed over to law enforcement agencies. An assessment of the incident will be given in the near future.
