Kyrgyzstan received a total of $101.67 million in dividends from "Centerra Gold Inc." and "Kumtor Gold Company" in the period of 2009 and 2022. The highest payments were made to the state budget based on the performance of the Kumtor mine in 2010, 2014, and 2015, which amounted to $30.2 million, $10.1 million, and $16.6 million, respectively, Akchabar reports.
However, dividend payments ceased after that. As a result, Kyrgyzstan did not receive any dividends from its shares for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. The dividend payments resumed only in 2020, with "Centerra" paying $9.9 million for the activities in 2019 and just $2.9 million for the activities in 2020-2021. This indicates a significant reduction in dividends to the country after a three-year break.
In 2021, a parliamentary commission of Kyrgyzstan, which preceded the transfer of the "Kumtor" company to external management of the state, found that due to ineffective management and unclear schemes, the company regularly incurred losses in most of its deposits. This led to a decrease in profits and affected dividends owed to shareholders, including Kyrgyzstan, which held a 26.4% stake.
Once the Kyrgyzstan government took over the management of the mine, dividend payments to the state increased almost fourfold to $10.9 million in 2021. The results of the gold mining company's operations in 2022 will be visible this year.
According to the company, $140 million will be transferred to Kyrgyzstan's budget as income from its shares. This amount fully covers all the dividends received from "Centerra" during the years of operating the Kumtor gold mine.
CentralasianLIGHT.org,
August 3, 2023