Source: miningweekly.com, News.mn                    Date: 10 November, 2010

Centerra Gold cannot say how long it might be before the company gets permission to start commissioning its Gatsuurt project in Mongolia, spokesperson John Pearson said last week. It will cut about 250 jobs when mining at its Boroo operation ends later this month, as the plan had been for those workers to be redeployed at the now-delayed Gatsuurt, about 50 km away.

The company is waiting to hear how the project will be affected by a new water and forests law, which has been approved in Mongolia, but has yet to be implemented. The final permission for Gatsuurt will not be approved until the uncertainty under the new law is dealt with.

"It is very hard to predict" how long that might take, Mr. Pearson said. The company plans to keep capital spending on the Gatsuurt project "minimal" until the approvals are received, CEO Steve Lang said earlier. However, once the green light is received, production from Gatsuurt should start up reasonably quickly, he said.

"It's really a very short timeline. I think we would immediately look to rehire the employees, I suspect we could be mining within a week," Mr. Lang said.

Even including the accumulation of some stockpile material at both the mine and plant, production from Gatsuurt ore could begin "in just a few weeks", he said.

In the meantime, Centerra will continue to process stockpiled ore at Boroo after mining ends at the end of this month."I believe we have enough stockpiled ore at Boroo to take us through at least mid-next year," Mr. Lang said. Other options include the processing of refractory and low-grade ore which has been stockpiled.

In a statement, Boroo Gold LLC President and Executive Director, Mr. John Kazakoff, has said that the decision to end mining “was a difficult one to take but we had no real choice”. The company “understands the difficulties to be faced by the retrenched employees and their families, as also by contractor and supplier companies, and by citizens benefiting from our local development projects”.