Kumtor mine, Flickr photographer, anonymous.
Background
Centerra Gold Mining is a Toronto based excavation company that focuses on gold extraction primarily in Central Asia and other emerging third world markets. According to the company's web page, Centerra has two producing gold mines, 100% interest in the Kumtor mine in the Kyrgyz Republic and 100% interest in the Boroo mine in Mongolia. The company is also salivating over potential properties in Russia, China, Mongolia and Turkey.
Environmental Resources Management (ERM), is an environmental study contractor with ties to Koch Industries and other massive oil and mining Corporations. As you may recall, the State Department released a heavily criticized 2,000-page draft report downplaying the environmental risks of the northern portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, this report was prepared by ERM.
According to Mother Jones, those redactions were meant to keep ties between the report authors and Transanada a secret from the public. Here is what the State Department was covering up:
• ERM's second-in-command on the Keystone report, Andrew Bielakowski, had worked on three previous pipeline projects for TransCanada over seven years as an outside consultant. He also consulted on projects for ExxonMobil, BP, and ConocoPhillips, three of the Big Five oil companies that could benefit from the Keystone XL project and increased extraction of heavy crude oil taken from the Canadian tar sands.
• Another ERM employee who contributed to State's Keystone report—and whose prior work history was also redacted—previously worked for Shell Oil;
• A third worked as a consultant for Koch Gateway Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Shell and Koch* have a significant financial interest in the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. ERM itself has worked for Chevron, which has invested in Canadian tar sands extraction, according to its website.
The desmogblog notes that the Kumtor Gold Mine, owned by Centerra Gold/Cameco Corporation, was provided a stamp of approval from ERM Group in October 2012. Similar to the TransCanada arrangement with the State Department on Keystone XL, Centerra served as the funder of the report evaluating its own project.
The mine sits at an altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, in the Tien Shan mountain range and among some of Kyrgyzstan's - and the region's - most important glaciers,” explained an October 28 story published in Asia Times.
“Centerra Gold has consistently dismissed as untrue that operations at Kumtor have had negative implications for the glaciers, which are reportedly melting with observable speed due to years of dumping rock tailings onto the ice sheet. The Canadian company has backed its position with expert evaluations from consultancies such as Environmental Resources Management.”
The Glacier
Glacier Hub has another fascinating read on their website, this time on Centerra's melting and excavation of the Davidov glacial ice, the high potential for catastrophic pollution of Central Asia's water supply, and risks of glacial deadly sodium cyanide laced outburst floods. (emphasis mine)
Until recently, Centerra dumped waste rock directly onto a glacier called Davidov, in violation of its environmental permits, as the company admitted in its 2012 environmental and sustainability report. (Dumping ore on ice speeds up glacial melting, already accelerated by climate change.)
Centerra wrote in that report that it has also removed parts of the Davidov, Lysyi and Sarytor glaciers that overlay gold deposits—and plans to continue doing so: it estimates total removal of 147 million tons of ice between 1995 and 2026, the life of mine. (According to Centerra, that is equal to approximately 5 percent of the estimated ice losses for the five Kumtor area glaciers attributable to climate change during the same period.) Without meltwater from the glaciers, the Naryn and Syrdarya rivers that supply water for the region could ultimately run dry in hotter summer months.
Perhaps the most immediate risk, however, is that Lake Petrov, a glacial lake at risk for outburst flooding, sits directly above the mine’s storage pond for waste rock, or “tailings,” which contains toxic cyanide and heavy metals. If that facility were washed out during flooding, it could result in a major catastrophe, according to Isobek Torgojev, a Kyrgyz geophysician studying the risks of the mine. Torgojev spoke to non-profit Bankwatch for a short documentary on the subject. (In its 2012 report, Centerra pledged to take measures to mitigate the risks of an outburst flood.)
Centerra has also been charged with contaminating local rivers with toxic chemicals, by at least one widely cited independent global mining expert—Robert Moran. But two foreign geological research institutes—one German and one Slovenian—hired by the Kyrgyz government to provide evidence of Centerra’s environmental recklessness, claim Centerra’s impact on the health of the rivers is neutral, according to Radio Free Europe.
William Colgan, in his blog
Glacier Bytes notes the frightening details of mining a glacier.
I have a paper in this month’s issue of the Journal of Cold Regions Engineering that examines the ice excavation required to establish and maintain an open ice pit. Excavating an open ice pit is a very non-linear applied glaciology problem, as the excavation of ice from an open ice pit enhances subsequent ice flow into the open ice pit. This is because ice velocity is very sensitive to changes in ice geometry, with third and fourth order dependencies on ice slope and thickness respectively! The paper examines scenarios based on excavating an open ice pit on the Greenland ice sheet margin that extends 1000 m into the ice sheet, with a 200 m high ice wall. That is the approximate dimension of the Isua Prospect, Greenland, which is projected to excavate about 36,000,000 tonnes of glacier ice per year.
Working with such unnatural combinations of ice slope and ice thickness compels you to reconsider fundamental principles of glacier mechanics, such as the appropriate relation between stress and strain at tremendous basal shear stresses, which are inconceivable in virtually all natural glacier settings. Despite an increasingly pressing need for a comprehensive understanding of how glaciers respond to highly transient forcings, however, most private sector glacier management projects cannot contribute meaningful observational data to advance such fundamental science due to proprietary considerations. Perhaps that can change in the future!
Protests, arrests and allegations of torture.
Memory, Truth and Justice notes a Kyrgyzstan doctor imprisoned for defending her village.
"Locals are concerned about the impacts of the Kumtor GoldMine operation on their health. It leads to regular conflicts between local people, the company and officials. The villagers are demanding proper compensation for the impacts of the wealthy industry. Throughout the last years, the health of the villagers deteriorated. It is hard to resist the pressure from the company and the authorities in bringing up these issues.”
Local Barskoon village doctor, Baktygul Imankozhoeva.
A post on you YouTube notes allegations of torture on a local environmental activist arrested during protests against Centerra Gold.
"Environmental activist Ulan Chibutov, after arrest and torture in the Kyrgyzstan State Security (GKNB) prison facility. Detained along with 10 more Saruu village community activists on October 7, 2013 at the protest in Issyk Kul province. Kyrgyz state ombudsman visited him in prison 3 days later to check on torture reports. Currently, Ulan is serving time. Saruu village and nearby townships are the communities affected by Kumtor gold mine operations. Centerra Gold, main shareholder and mine operator denies wrongdoing."
Radio Free Europe reported on dozens of protesters being hurt as Kyrgyz protesters and police clashed. Protests continue to unfold.
RFE/RL's correspondent reports from the scene that police used tear gas against the crowd and that concussion and fragmentation grenades exploded near the scene where around 3,000 protesters were gathered.
The clashes erupted after police arrested dozens of protesters who had seized an electricity station and cut off power to the Kumtor gold mine late on May 30.
The protesters reportedly took a local governor hostage but later released him.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev announced the state of emergency for the entire Jety-Oguz district in which the Kumtor mining operations lie. It includes a curfew between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The main road near Kumtor remained blocked by hundreds more protesters early on May 31, with local authorities trying to negotiate with them.
The protesters at one point were demanding a meeting with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atanbaev and Prime Minister Jantoro Satybaldiev.
The Kumtor mine, which accounts for 12 percent of the Kyrgyz economy, has been at the center of political turmoil for several months now.
Local groups have been demanding that Centerra Gold build environmentally friendly infrastructure and medical facilities for them.
In October, some 1,000 demonstrators demanded the nationalization of Kumtor in a violent protest in the capital, Bishkek.
Three opposition lawmakers who took part in the October protest have been found guilty of attempting to seize power by force and sentenced to prison terms between a year and 18 months in March.
On May 31, hundreds of protesters in the southern city of Jalal-Abad demanded the immediate release of the three lawmakers.
They occupied the offices of the regional governor and announced that they have elected their own "people's" regional governor, Medet Usenov, who led the May 31 rallies.
A blistering video that is well produced and worth the time to view.