Yuri Razgulaev: Kirghizia plans extending the mining of gold

Kirghizia still builds its economy on the exploitation of gold deposits. However, for the time being, only one project has been realized: the exploitation of the Kumtor mountain deposit. This project does not provide much money to the Kirghiz budget.The profits are used to pay for a half-billion dollar loan that was taken in order to build the gold-mining complex. Recently, some new projects have appeared on how to use gold reserves. First of all, the Kirghiz government supported the idea of the exploitation of Kuru-Tegerek gold and the cupreous field situated in Chitkal district of the Jalal-Abad region. This idea will be realized by the joint Turkish-Kirghiz plant "Khamko-Kyrgyzstan." The peculiarity of the project is that compact leaching will be used here for the first time. The main point of this method is that crushed gold ore extracted from the earth is being piled up and poured with acid solution, which leaches the gold. The new solution is being used with hydrolyses method. As a result, a cheap gold is being produced. This project is very important for Kirghizia, because there are hundreds of deposits of the kind in the country. If the compact leaching method turns out to be productive, all the deposits could be industrially exploited without a need for huge investments. However, Kighizia still counts on foreign investments. In the nearest future, the Djerui and Taldy-Bulak deposits are planned to be put into operation. President Askar Akaev believes that the completion of these gold-mining complexes will secure for Kirghizia the third place in mining gold among CIS countries. The export of gold will make up half of the country’s income. Therefore, money earned due to gold will help to restore other industries, first of all hydroenergetics, which is the main guarantee of state’s independence.

Yuri Razgulaev PRAVDA.Ru Bishkek Kirghizia