Centerra Gold Reports Worker Fatality at Kumtor Mine

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Toronto, Canada-headquartered Centerra Gold reported yet another fatality at its Kumtor Mine in the Kyrgyz Republic. This is the third fatality reported at the mine since December 2019.

The mishap occurred over the weekend. At the time of the incident, the employee was operating an excavator. The machine slipped into a dam, resulting in fatal injury to the employee. The Kyrgyz government authorities are reportedly working closely with the company to determine the cause of the incident. Meantime, the company is running a parallel internal investigation into the incident.

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The mining activities were halted following missing of two employees, after a massive rockslide during the month of December last year. The search efforts have now been stopped with the consent of government agencies and families of the missing employees, after prolonged search operations failed to recover their bodies.

By end-January this year, Centerra Gold had received final approval for the company’s 2020 mine development plan for the Central Pit Development, enabling restart of open pit mining operations and continuation of milling activity for the rest of the year.

As per Centerra Gold estimates, the Kumtor gold mine production is expected to range between 520,000 and 560,000 ounces in 2020.