Uzbekistan, Tashkent, March 22 / Trend D. Azizov /
British OxusGoldPlc. (Oxus) declared a force majeure on the gold mining joint venture Amantaytau Goldfields in Uzbekistan. Oxus owns a 50 percent stake, a source in the governmental circles told Trend.
The agency's interlocutor said that the Uzbek State Committee for Geology and Mineral Resources received a letter from the Oxus. It says that the force majeure frees the company from its obligations as a shareholder of Amantaytau Goldfields in a number of agreements. The relevant treaty obligations of the British company are currently suspended within these agreements.
One of the founders of the joint venture is the Oxus Resources Corp with an authorized capital of $11.6 million. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oxus Gold plc, established in 1996 to work in the mining industry in Central Asia, with a 50 percent share of the joint venture's capital. Other founders include the Uzbek State Committee for Geology and Mineral Resources (40 percent) and the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (10 percent). The joint venture has a license to develop the Amantaytau Field with recoverable reserves of 3.2 million ounces of gold and additional stocks valued at more than 3 million ounces.
The joint venture also has licenses on four gold deposits.
In January, Oxus said a consortium of Chinese companies refused to finance the joint venture with $185 million. The agreement with the consortium was signed in Jan. 2010.
The consortium consists of Baiyin Non-Ferrous Group Co. and CITIC Construction Co., which are controlled by the Chinese government and the private Chinese investment fund Chang Xin Yuan Su (Tianjin).
According to Oxus, production amounted to 50.540 ounces of gold and 938.850 ounces of silver in 2008. In 2009, the joint venture produced 4,000 ounces of gold and 170.300 ounces of silver.