Bishkek, 10 November. Kyrgyzstan’s Cabinet of Ministers has approved a draft supplementary agreement to the revised 2009 investment agreement on the Kumtor gold deposit: the amendments are linked to the exit of Canada’s Centerra Gold from the project, according to the resolution reported by 24.kg.
The resolution was signed by the chairman of the Cabinet, Adylbek Kasymaliev. It concerns the agreement of 6 June 2009 between the government, Centerra Gold Inc., Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) and Kumtor Operating Company. The changes are needed, the document says, because Centerra has left the project and to ensure uninterrupted and efficient operation of the deposit. The resolution also implements the agreement of 26 December 2023 terminating the earlier strategic agreement on environmental protection and investment development, and KGC’s unilateral commitment of 7 August 2019. Kyrgyzaltyn and KGC are advised to take the necessary steps, and state bodies are instructed to assist.
What exactly changes in the parties’ financial, investment and environmental obligations is not disclosed in the published text of the resolution. The details of the document are given as 24.kg relayed them; the document itself is not reproduced in this report.
Kumtor is a gold deposit in the Issyk-Kul region; by Reuters’ assessment it is the former Soviet republic’s biggest industrial enterprise. The 2009 agreements set a special tax regime for the project: the company pays a single tax, on turnover, and contributes to a fund of the Issyk-Kul region and to the development of the mineral resource base, Economist.kg recalled.
In May 2021 the state took the mine under its control, and the Canadian company began legal disputes with the authorities. A settlement was signed on 4 April 2022: Centerra handed Kyrgyzstan 100% of the shares of Kumtor Gold Company and Kumtor Operating Company in exchange for Kyrgyzaltyn’s whole stake in Centerra, about 26.1%, Kaktus.media reported.
The mine is working profitably: in the first nine months of 2026 KGC paid the state 627.8 million dollars in taxes, dividends and other mandatory payments, more than twice the 309.9 million dollars a year earlier, the company said. Revenue over the period was 1.013 billion dollars (735.8 million a year earlier) and net profit 548.4 million dollars, up 71%. Taxes and mandatory payments came to 277.8 million dollars. These are the company’s own figures as relayed by the outlet.
On 9 November, at a meeting with voters, President Sadyr Japarov said the state intends to develop all deposits itself. On reports of a possible halt at Kumtor in 2032 he said the enterprise will continue working and mining will go on until 2050, 24.kg reported. He urged people to rely on official sources. The ore in one of the mine’s pits, the Central one, will run out in the coming years, he explained, but this will not stop the enterprise: more than 100 units of heavy mining equipment working at the pit are to be sent to develop the Zhetim-Too deposit.
What it means: The Cabinet is bringing the framework of the agreement on the mine into line with the fact that Centerra no longer takes part in the project, as the resolution states. The conditions that change on tax, investment and environment have not yet been published, so the effects for the budget and the environment cannot be assessed.
Who benefits: The state as owner and Kumtor Gold Company itself: the resolution speaks of uninterrupted and efficient operation of the deposit, and according to the company the state received 627.8 million dollars in nine months. Whose interests a change in the tax and environmental regime would affect is unclear from what has been published.
Background: Centerra Gold is a Canadian mining company that managed Kumtor through subsidiaries until 2021; Kyrgyzaltyn is a Kyrgyz gold-mining company that held about 26.1% of Centerra’s shares until the 2022 deal. The 2009 investment agreement was one of the terms on which Kumtor operated under its former owner.
