May/June 2013 - The ASIA Miner

Central Asia
Delays in Pakrut construction
OWING to a number of delays during early construction
stages, Kryso Resources does not expect
to complete the underground mine and
associated infrastructure at the Pakrut Gold
Project in Tajikistan by the scheduled time of
March 2014. AIM-listed Kryso retains full confidence
in the construction and project potential,
and will advise a new target date for completion
of construction and commencement of gold
production at Pakrut in due course.
Kryso was granted an exploration and trial
licence over the Pakrut licence area, covering
63sqkm, in April 2004. The licence is located
in the Tien Shan Gold Belt. Kryso’s primary
goal is to bring the Pakrut project, of which it
has 100% ownership, into production.
Tien Shan is a belt of folded rocks that extends
from near the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan
Kryso Resources’ Pakrut project is in Tajikistan and is part of the extensive Tien Shan Gold Belt.
through the northern part of Tajikistan into
China and then into Mongolia. It contains the
world’s second largest known gold resources
after the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Pakrut,
which lies within the southern portion of
the belt, is three hours by road northeast of
the capital city of Tajikistan, Dushanbe.
In January 2012, the Ministry of Energy and
Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan formally
announced the issuance of a Mining Licence
to LLC Pakrut for the Pakrut project. The mining
licence is valid until November 2, 2030,
and the amount of ore that can be mined is
variable depending on the mine plan. The
mine plan submitted to the Ministry envisages
an initial annual processing capacity of
660,000 tonnes of ore, increasing to 1.32 million
tonnes from 2017.
The project reserves under the Russian classification
system, which total 1,257,454 ounces
at a cut-off grade of 0.5 grams/tonne, were approved
by the State Committee for Reserves
Tajikistan on December 15, 2008. The latest resource
estimate was completed by Snowden
in May 2012 and they defined a total JORCcompliant
resource of 5,020,000 ounces, assuming
a 0.5 grams/tonne cut-off grade.
Stans Energy faces further delays
ATTEMPTS by Stans Energy to resume production
at the Kutessay II rare earths mine in
the Kyrgyz Republic look set to face further
delays owing to ongoing legal action. New
legal proceedings have recently been initiated
by the Kyrgyz State Prosecutor’s Office
against the Kyrgyz State Geological and Mineral
Resources Agency (SGA).
The State Prosecutor’s Office has put forward
an application to lift the three-year statute
of limitations to allow them to present to
the court their claim of request to nullify the
minutes of the December 21, 2009 meeting
between the SGA and Open Stock Company
(OSC) Kutessai Mining which granted the latter
mining licences for the Kutessay II and Kalesay
deposits.
OSC Kutessai Mining was a 100% stateowned
special purpose entity, created to
hold mining licences for the deposits. It was
put for an open and previously advertised
government auction on December 29,
2009. Stans’ local subsidiary, Stans Energy
KG, acquired OSC Kutessai Mining on December
29, 2009 through this auction,
where US$855,000 was paid to the government,
which at the time was double the
value that the Kyrgyz authorities had attributed
to the property. Stans Energy KG
then re-registered OSC Kutessai Mining Ltd
as it’s fully-owned subsidiary.
‘Kutessai Mining Ltd’ is named as a third
party to the proceedings. Stans and its legal
representation are of the position that the
claim filed by the State Prosecutor’s Office is
baseless, with no legal merit, and that the
company’s 100%-owned mining licences for
both properties were obtained lawfully,
through transparent government auction, on
December 29, 2009.
Stans’ president and CEO Robert Mackay
says, “We have every piece of paperwork
filed since we began our business ventures in
Kyrgyzstan and there is no doubt in my mind
that our legal team will thwart this attempt on
our licences, just as they have successfully
done in the past. Our lawyers have always
been meticulous in ensuring that all of Stans
Energy’s business dealings within Kyrgyzstan
have adhered to the laws of the country, and
this commitment will never change as we
work towards bringing the Kutessay II heavy
rare earth mine back into production.”
The new action follows a report that the
legal representative of the Jogorku Kenesh of
the Kyrgyz Republic had withdrawn their appeal
relating to the action by a committee
against the company. Stans believed that
withdrawal effectively ended all legal controversy
surrounding the Kutessay II licence.
Last year, Stans faced a shortened field
season due to administrative delays within
the Kyrgyz State Geological Agency. Engineering
and geological programs could not
commence until unanimous approval of Licence
Agreement 3 was granted on June 15.
Subsequently, a 30-day work stoppage was
issued on August 30 which further shortened
the field program.
26 | ASIA Miner | May/June 2013