BISHKEK. Oct 24 (Interfax) - The government of Kyrgyzstan has indefinitely stopped the work of Chinese-Kyrgyz mining JV Altynken at one of the country's largest gold deposits - Taldy Bulak Levoberezhny, where last Sunday there was a fight between workers, a source in the government told Interfax.
The Kyrgyz government is expected to issue a resolution Wednesday on suspending work to prepare the deposit for development.
There was a government session on Tuesday evening at which a decision was made to set up an interdepartmental commission to resolve the conflict between local residents and Chinese citizens working at the deposit.
Around 300 Chinese workers were taken to Milyanfan, a district neighboring the deposit, to a production complex on Monday.
There was a fight on October 21 between local residents (Orlovka) and Chinese workers that led to injuries for four Kyrgyz citizens. There were no reports about any injuries to any Chinese citizens. The next day local residents organized a meeting to protest about Chinese workers at the deposit and closed the road to the mine. There were around 450 protestors, the police said. The protestors dispersed in the evening after handing officials demands to only employ Kyrgyz citizens and hire only local contractors.
There are around 260 Kyrgyz citizens working at the mine and 300 Chinese.
Interfax was unable to obtain a comment from Altynken.
Government-owned OJSC Kyrgyzaltyn owns 40% of Altynken and China's SuperB Pacific Ltd., a subsidiary of Zijin Mining, owns 60%.
Taldy-Bulak Levoberezhny was opened in the Soviet period. Preliminary reserves are estimated at 100 tonnes of gold. In the spring of 2006, OJSC Kyrgyzaltyn signed a joint development deal with Kazakhstan's Summer Gold and in September 2011 the investor sold its share to the Chinese company with the approval of Kyrgyzaltyn.