Tuesday, July 17, 2012 -
South African mining firm Gold Fields has bought out British firm Orsu Metals to take full ownership of a Talas gold, copper, and molybdenum field, a Gold Field representative said Tuesday.
The South African firm paid $10 million to purchase 40 percent of the Talas Copper Gold mine, the Mining Weekly news agency reported.
Gold Fields is not concerned about potential instability in the country, Gold Fields Corporate Affairs Manager Sven Lunche told the news agency.
“Political risk has been mitigated to some extent,” he said. “We have had good discussions with Kyrgyzstan’s president [Almazbek Atambayev] and they have a good framework in place to create a positive investment environment.”
Gold Fields, in addition to owning 60 percent of the mine, also serves as the operator of the mine.
Orsu Metals says it sold its interest in the Kyrgyz mine to focus more on bringing a sulphide copper project in Kazakhstan into production.
Talas Copper Gold stopped operations last October after a group of horsemen wielding sticks and Molotov cocktails attacked the geologist camp, beating and threatening workers.