PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Kentor Gold on Wednesday welcomed a call by the government of the Kyrgyz Republic to the country’s Parliament to reconsider its stance on the proposed Andash gold project. In June last year, the Kyrgyz Parliament adopted a resolution to suspend activities at the Andash gold project, and to revoke all permits.

The resolution was proposed by a member of the Kyrgyz Parliament, who alleged that Kentor did not intend to take any efforts to ensure environmental safety, and was planning to pour industrial waste into the drinking water of the population of Talas Oblast.

The state government last week requested that the Parliament reconsidered its resolution, and since that time, a meeting of the Kyrgyz Parliamentary Committee on Development of Economic Sectors has agreed to a clarification by April 10.

“It is good to see the Parliamentary committee and the government working together to resolve the issue with the development of the Andash project,” said Kentor MD Simon Milroy.

“The clear articulation of their positions on the development of the project is required from both the government and Parliament before the full support of the local community can be obtained,” he noted.

Kentor owns an 80% interest in the Andash project, and while development-ready and supported by the Kyrgyz government, the project also required formal approval by the local community.

Upon receiving final approval and gaining site access, Kentor would likely start a three-month geotechnical investigation programme, and would then proceed with the construction programme.

The Andash project would cost an estimated US$96-million to deliver to production, at a planned rate of 60 000 oz/y gold and 6 800 t/y of copper in concentrate for an initial six-and-a-half year life-of-mine.

The current estimated resource is 19.2-million tons at 1.1 g/t gold and 0.4% copper for 680,000 oz of gold and 77,000 t of copper.