Kyrgyzstan has postponed the introduction of a temporary ban on the export of gold ore and gold concentrate from the country to July 1. Bulletin of the Gold Producer reports with reference to the decree of the President Sadyr Japarov.
It notes: it was planned that the document would come into force on May 1, 2023 (decree dated October 26, 2022); in April last year, its introduction was postponed to December 31, 2023. It is assumed that the temporary ban will be extended by the Cabinet of Ministers every six months.
Kara-Balta Mining Plant OJSC (refinery) was initially granted the exclusive right to process gold ore and gold concentrate mined and produced in the territory of Kyrgyzstan. However, the enterprise did not have time to introduce ore and concentrate processing capacity.
In September 2022, the plant resumed processing of gold ore. The production capacity of the complex is 100 tons of ore for leaching, 500 tons for cleaning (ore and concentrate) and 20 tons of concentrate per day. It was also planned that in March 2023 the processing complex in Chui region was to be launched at full capacity. In the future, the capacity of the Kara-Balta plant can be increased to 5,000 tons of raw materials per day.
The Kara-Balta Mining Plant was founded in 1955 and specialized in processing uranium concentrate. In 1992, refining facilities were built on its territory. In 2001, refining and gold ore production were transferred to Kyrgyzaltyn OJSC. In 2007, the Russian Ural Platina Holding, part of Renova group of companies owned by Viktor Vekselberg, bought a state-owned stake of 72.28 percent of shares, and in February 2016 the plant completely stopped production. Last year, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the enterprise. At the end of December 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers provided Kyrgyzaltyn OJSC with the land plots belonging to Kara-Balta Mining Plant for free use for 49 years.
