Gold Venture to be Sold at Auction in May

The assets of the Zerafshan-Newmont gold mining joint venture in Uzbekistan will be auctioned off on May 2. Bids will start at around 140 million US dollars. According to the Times of Central Asia, this will be the fourth attempt to sell the assets as no one has yet come forward with an offer and the creditors refuse to lower the asking price. Newmont Mining, the world's second largest gold producer, owned half the equity in the joint venture, which was declared bankrupt by an Uzbek court last autumn. Newmont, the Uzbek State Geology and Mineral Resources Committee and the Navoi Mining and Metals Plant began mining in 1992 to recover gold from tailings at the Muruntau open pit. The venture processed 220 million tonnes of ore with an average grading of 1.4 grams of gold per tonne.