VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – A mill employee has been killed in an accident at Centerra Gold's Kumtor mine, located in the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, reported the Canadian gold miner.
The employee was killed on Sunday while working at the mill ore conveyor.
The TSX-listed company advised that an internal investigation was under way and that Kumtor management were working with Kyrgyz police and the relevant regulatory authorities to determine the cause of the accident.
Kyrgyzstan's government last month stopped talks with Centerra on restructuring the jointly owned Kumtor mine, saying that the current agreement was not in the national interest.
The government has stated that it would propose a new restructuring proposal to develop Kumtor, seeking "an increase in financial flows" for Kyrgyzstan.
Centerra, Kumtor's operator, has been in talks with Kyrgyzstan for almost two years on a deal that would involve the former-Soviet republic swapping its 32.7% stake in Centerra for half of a joint venture that would control the gold deposit.