Authorities of Kyrgyzstan want to lift the moratorium on uranium and thorium mining, which was introduced in 2019 after the scandal around Kyzyl-Ompol field.
The Ministry of Natural Resources, which has initiated the draft law, justifies it by the need for other sources of income, namely extraction and export of minerals, particularly, uranium. According to the agency, if the moratorium is lifted, strict ecological norms and standards will be developed for users of mineral resources exploring uranium and thorium, while the agency will be regularly monitoring the impact of exploration on the environment and public health.
In the Soviet period, uranium development in Kyrgyzstan caused serious damage to the country’s environment. The republic still has 92 burials of toxic and radioactive substances. 36 of them are located in Mailuu-Suu, in the south of the country. Furthermore, a quarter of tailing dumps contain elements of uranium, while the remaining dumps contain residual radioactive rock formations, heavy metals and cyanide.
Radiation and possible landslides are among key hazardous factors of mining. They can spread toxic wastes not only in local waters, but also neighbours – Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
In spring 2019, dozens of people came to protest in front of the parliament building in Bishkek. They demanded to stop the mining of Kyzyl-Ompol group of uranium fields, which is located in Ton district of Issyk-Kul region. Shortly before, it became known that ‘UrAsia in Kyrgyzstan’ was licensed and started geological prospecting and exploration.
Protest actions were held both in Issyk-Kul region and in the capital. People had a fear that development of fields located near the Orto-Tokoi reservoir and Lake Issyk-Kul could harm the environment. Eventually, after a while, the parliament adopted a decree to ban uranium mining in Kyrgyzstan.
However, five years later, February 19, 2024, Sadyr Japarov raised the issue of uranium mining at the meeting with the residents of Balykchy, Ton district, Issyk-Kul region, and Kochkor district, Naryn region. According to him, the project implementation will be of a major economic benefit to the country.
“We can say that the second Kumtor is on the way. [Kyzyl-Ompol group of fields] has nearly 10 fields. We will earn over 2 billion dollars of net profit from only one field. Last year, the net profit of Kumtor was over 300 million dollars, and the enterprise paid about 30 billion Kyrgyz som in taxes (335.1 million dollars). If the field starts working, it will be beneficial both for the people and for the state,” Japarov said in the interview to state agency Kabar.
The attempt to cancel the ban on uranium mining is taking place amid the news on cooperation between Russia and Kyrgyzstan on construction of the small nuclear power plant. It is expected that the field Kyzyl-Ompol will be developed directly by the state.
According to the presidential administration, there are 14.7 million tonnes of ore available at the Kyzyl-Ompol field, including 95% of titanomagnetite, 3% phosphor, 2% zirconium, 0.22% thorium and 0.17% uranium.
Profitable enterprise?
According to Almazbek Zhakypov, deputy chair of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan, all fields that have a value must be developed.
“Everyone has a negative opinion about uranium mining. Speaking of ecology, it tends to recover. Basically, developing fields and gaining from them is a reasonable decision, while sitting and asking for money and loans is not good,” he said.
Economist Marat Musuraliev said that nothing threatens the environment in the region if environmental and industrial safety standards are followed.
“Raw materials are located close to the surface. Moreover, there are technologies that let decrease the dispersion of dust and dirt. If all conditions are met, there will be no hazard,” he said.
However, speaking of the economic component, Musuraliev noted that uranium mining would not affect the economic situation.
“It is not even a mine. All resources are available on the surface, and the railway is located nearby. In general, extraction of raw materials does not affect the economy and will create only about 500 jobs,” the economist said.
He also said that it would be profitable only if production cycle is set up – from uranium mining to its enrichment and fuel manufacturing for the nuclear power plant. Only in this case we can speak about a large number of jobs and high profitability. Otherwise, the uranium that is available in Kyrgyzstan is inappropriate for nuclear power plants.
“It should undergo three stages of enrichment in order to have 1 kilogramme of energy-producing uranium from a thousand tonnes. However, this technology is still unavailable in the country,” said Almazbek Zhakypov, deputy chair of the Mining and Metallurgical Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan.
He said that the mining combine in Kara-Balta used to work on the imported raw materials and used the unique technology of uranium enrichment.
“Currently, the combine is idle, but it is ready to start working any time and can create thousands of jobs. The problem is in the excessive political nature of our society. All people believe that uranium means apocalypse. In fact, we walk on these fields. We will have only 100 grams of uranium parts, which will be hazardous. Kara-Balta performed only the first stage of processing, and then it was enriched in Kazakhstan and Russia,” Zhakypov said.
Either ecology or economy
However, ecologists feels positive that development of Kyzyl-Ompol field is hazardous for the biosphere protected area of Issyk-Kul.
“Field development will surely lead to the destruction of the biosphere, which is under the aegis of UNESCO. At the time, we wanted to make it a biosphere and now we contradict ourselves and want to develop relevant fields,” said ecologist Kaliya Moldogazieva.
According to her, the unique ecosystem and biological diversity should be preserved currently not only for the present, but also for future generations.
“We need to develop economy so that it is focused on sustainable development. We had earlier approved the National Development Strategy of Kyrgyzstan until 2040, which said that all nature conservation industries must be developed. Otherwise, if we are guided by immediate interests, we can lose our unique territory,” the expert said.
According to her, it is unreasonable to lift the moratorium on development of radioactive elements in the country, which still has a few dozens of uranium tailing dumps.
She added that despite the profit that could be made from field development, big economic losses are also possible from field reclamation.
“Project initiators do not provide any figures. They say that the profit from the field development will be 2 billion dollars, but no one says how much will be spent on the field reclamation. Reclamation is required after every development, and in some cases it will cost even more than development itself, which means economic losses. Currently, there are no feasibility study and environmental impact assessment, no exact figures,” she said.