ARCHIVED: Kumtor Gold Mine, Kyrgyzstan

The Kumtor open pit gold mine is located in a remote area of the Tian-Shan mountain range in Kyrgyzstan at an altitude of 4000 metres, next to the Sarychat-Ertash reserve and not far from the Issyk-Kul lake, an important regional tourist attraction.

The mine is being developed in fragile conditions of permafrost and in the vicinity of glaciers that feed fresh waters into the transboundary Naryn River. It is an area of surreal beauty.

Potential for catastrophic events

The mine’s tailings (i.e. chemically polluted leftovers) are located below Lake Petrov. The lake grew by more than 92,000 square metres annually in recent years due to a melting glacier. The lake’s natural dam has become less and less stable (according to Torgoev Isakbek, author of a State Commission report on the subject).

Although there is no imminent danger, the lake’s tremendous growth might cause it to break out at some point. In a worst-case scenario, the downstream tailings could then be washed away, with unforeseeable impacts on the environment.

The tailings dam foundation is also experiencing horizontal deformations and is moving down the slope [2].

Inspite of measures to stabilise the dam in 2003 and 2006 (so-called shear keys and toe berm), the dam is still continuing to move. Kyrgyz scientists believe it is caused by the facts that it has been built on an uneven slope and that the dam never freezes.

Water pollution

During summer operations (May through October) some five million cubic metres of waste water from the tailings are treated and discharged into the Kumtor River and eventually flow into the Naryn River (later Syrdarya) towards Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.

While Centerra Gold Inc. does not publicise data on the quality of the discharged water, people living near the Kumtor River observed an enormous decrease in fish stock in recent years and suspect that the river has already been polluted.

The seasonal glacier melt-waters and the ground water flow into the mine’s open pit at a rate up to 1000 liters/sec [3]. After contact with the rock, the water becomes chemically-degraded and is then pumped out and discharged to the environment.