Chaarat Gold reaches stabilisation agreement with Kyrgyz government

Gold miner Chaarat has concluded a stabilisation agreement with the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic regarding its Tulkubash and Kyzyltash projects.

Chaarat said the agreement was based on investment law of the Kyrgyz Republic, which stimulates investors to make substantial investments - including ones into the country's mining industry - by providing formal assurances on the stability of the nation's tax regime.

The AIM-listed group will now be entitled to benefit from any future changes to direct taxes and a number of non-tax payments for ten years from the date of the agreement.

Chief executive Artem Volynets said: "This agreement shows strong support for Chaarat in-country and is a strong endorsement for the company going forward.

"This also highlights both Chaarat's and the Government's focus on the stability of our future operations and allows us both to continue to commit to the development of this project."

At the project level, Chaarat said construction continued to progress well at Tulkubash, with first gold production on track for late 2021 and an updated resource and reserve statement scheduled for the first quarter of 2020.

In terms of funding, the miner said it was continuing to advance project financing discussions for Tulkubash with several international groups and was on track to finalise the project financing by the end Q1 2020.

Chaarat added that it was also considering refinancing debt maturing in Q1 2020 and possible options for the Kapan debt as well, although the latter was said to be optional.

As of 1035 GMT, Chaarat shares were up 1.55%% at 35.54p.