Safety is a core value at Kumtor

published: 16 August 2021

Kumtor Gold Company CJSC (KGC) is operating in a safe, stable, and planned manner. To achieve such results, the team of the KGC Temporary External Manager had to overcome serious resistance from the Canadian company Centerra Gold (Centerra). On May 15, 2021, prior to the introduction of Temporary External Management in KGC, Centerra remotely disabled the access of all KGC employees to global IT systems and servers.  It was an attempt to paralyze the KGC operations. As a result, critical systems for monitoring the stability of the pit walls and waste dumps were also locked out at the Mine site.

“Without warnings, without any prelude, personal computers were shut off thus denying the access to the servers that were used by us to collect all the information from our radars and other measuring devices. The data comes to the server room and then via software it goes to our computers, and this access was completely restricted”, recalls the Senior Geomechanics Engineer Salamat Toguzbaev.

The simultaneous locking of all IT systems and communication means posed a real threat to the safety and life of our employees. In addition, the locking of databases where mining and exploration data as well as all the necessary historical data were stored, had a negative impact on the activities of all company departments. We should not forget that the Kumtor Mine is located at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters above sea level, in an earthquake-prone zone, where any earthquake, even a weak one, can trigger the movement of glaciers. Thus, the Centerra actions put the lives of the company’s employees and the Mine operations at risk. Only for this reason, the Kyrgyz Republic authorities were forced to urgently introduce temporary management in KGC to ensure safe operation of the company.

Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the employees under the competent and effective leadership of the Temporary External Manager Tengiz Bolturuk, all IT systems and communications were promptly restored or replaced with more efficient similar ones. Now Kumtor employees feel safe in the workplace.

Currently, systematic work is being carried out to eliminate the flaws and drawbacks indicated in the State Commission report. The Company is making plans for the future. The new strategy for the Mine development, which has already been implemented by the team of Tengiz Bolturuk, includes a more advanced mining method. Underground gold mining is safer for the environment and will help preserve the glaciers of our country. Finally, the issue that both the state and the civil sector have been demanding from Centerra Gold to resolve for many years, started being finally addressed.

“Should both Cameco and Centerra had respected our laws and not violated them from the very beginning, we would have continued our cooperation. The current situation is the result of a predatory attitude to our nature, corruption and disregard for the laws of the Kyrgyz Republic. Kumtor operation is underway. So will it continue in the future as well. Now we are stronger and more mobilized than ever!”, – assured the KGC Interim External Manager Tengiz Bolturuk.

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Kumtor Gold Company CJSC (KGC) adheres to the philosophy of openness and transparency in its work. The KGC activities are exclusively subject to and governed by the laws of the Kyrgyz Republic.