Taldykorgan, 22 October. The Zhetysu regional department of the Financial Monitoring Agency shut down a channel for exporting 2,600 tonnes of gold-bearing ore worth 1.5 billion tenge: customs documents declared the cargo as copper ores and concentrates, concealing its actual composition, Kazinform reports, citing the agency.
Investigators found more than 1,000 tonnes of raw material packed in large containers at warehouses in East Kazakhstan and Almaty regions. The director of the exporting company, RedGold Mining LLP, and other participants in the scheme have been identified. Two suspects have been remanded in custody, and the company's funds have been frozen by court order. Other details, including where the ore was headed, are not being disclosed under Article 201 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
What it means: Gold-bearing raw material was being shipped across the border as copper ore; part of the cargo was already sitting in warehouses in two regions, the exporter's director has been identified and two suspects are in custody.
Who benefits: According to the agency, the scheme made it possible to conceal the cargo's actual composition; the agency does not disclose who the ore was intended for abroad or what the participants stood to gain.
Background: The KNB Border Service, Kazinform recalls, earlier stopped the export of 160 tonnes of precious metal ores and concentrates worth about 1 billion tenge in Zhambyl region, and in early October the Financial Monitoring Agency reported illegal manganese ore mining in Ulytau region, with raw material worth more than 950 million tenge shipped out of Kazakhstan on paper.
List of sources used: Kazinform, Zakon.kz
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
