MARCH 23/29 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s London-listed mining companies, ENRC and Kazakhmys, recorded large jumps in profit in 2010 because of high global metal prices. ENRC’s underlying profit doubled and Kazakhmys’ rose 75%. Both companies are closely linked to the Kazakh elite, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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(News report from Issue No. 34, published on April 4 2011)
MARCH 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Oxus Gold said it doubted auditors would give a fair valuation to the 50% share of a gold mine it had agreed to sell to the Uzbek government. Oxus said it was prepared to trigger a legal battle with the Uzbek government over the value of the stake. Its shares fell 50%.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)
FEB. 22 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a three-day trip to Beijing, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed a series of deals with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The deals included Chinese funds for a new Astana-Almaty high speed rail link, a uranium supply deal and various oil and gas projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite the rather turgid official photos, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev left observers in no doubt how important they viewed relations between China and Kazakhstan when they met in Beijing on Feb. 22.
According to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, Mr Hu told Mr Nazarbayev that his trip to Beijing was the first by a head of state since the Chinese New Year on Feb. 3.
Mr Nazarbayev went one better. He told Mr Hu this was his first overseas trip of 2011.
Away from the platitudes, the deals the two leaders struck underlined how quickly the Sino-Kazakh economic relationship had developed. Mr Nazarbayev returned from Beijing with investment from China worth billions of dollars for a wide range of projects.
Perhaps the most important was for uranium sales. Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest uranium producers while China is energy hungry and has said it wants to boost its nuclear energy capacity. According to media reports Kazakhstan pledged to feed China with 40% of its uranium needs over the next few years.
Also agreed was a $1.7b loan from China to Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, Chinese investment for a 1,050km high-speed rail link between Astana and Almaty and a $1b plan to modernise the oil refinery in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea — one of three in Kazakhstan.
According to Mr Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s bilateral trade with China reached $20b in 2010, up 45% from 2009.
It looks set to continue to rise.
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 8/10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Japanese and Uzbek state-run metals companies pledged to jointly explore uranium deposits in Uzbekistan during an official visit by Uzbek President Islam Karimov to Tokyo. Mr Karimov and Japanese Pm Naoto Kan also said they wanted to strengthen bilateral relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 27, published on Feb. 14 2011)
FEB. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Oxus Gold, the only publicly listed mining company operating primarily in Uzbekistan, said it had agreed to sell its 50% stake in its mines to its Uzbek partners. Oxus Gold is listed on London’s AIM. It did not say how much it had agreed to sell its stake in the Amantaytau Goldfields for.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
FEB. 4 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The CEO of Kazakh mining company ENRC, Felix Vulis, has said he will quit the company for personal reasons. ENRC is one of the biggest mining companies in the world. Mr Vulis has been CEO since August 2009. He will remain in the job until the London-listed company has found an alternative CEO.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
FEB. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-based Centerra Gold increased proven and probable gold estimates at its Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan by 24%. It also said the lifespan of the mine, vital for Kyrgyzstan’s economy, had lengthened by two years to 2021. In 2009, Kumtor accounted for a quarter of Kyrgyzstan’s total industrial output.
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(News report from Issue No. 26, published on Feb. 7 2011)
JAN. 26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh miner Kazakhmys wants to raise $600m through a secondary listing in Hong Kong this year, media quoted unnamed sources as saying. Kazakhmys is already listed in London. In 2010, the Kazakh government increased its stake in Kazakhmys to 26%.
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(News report from Issue No. 25, published on Jan. 31 2011)
JAN. 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – US gold miner Spectral Capital said it had paid $200m for a 65% stake in a “vast” gold deposit in Kazakhstan. It did not give any more specifics about the deposit or who owns the other 35%. Spectral Capital bought a large gold deposit in Siberia last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 24, published on Jan. 24 2011)