Workers’ call to nationalise gold mine rattles Kyrgyz government
operated everyone taking turns running the tap, serves some of the cheapest alcohol in all of Norway.
If residents feel they need to get away from the hustle and bustle, the town maintains about a dozen cabins around the snow-covered peaks.
“You have a lot of single people here living in isolation, so you can imagine the romances that start and end here,” says one resident. “Those huts come in handy.”
Residents can also keep dogs, rent out the town’s boats or go the then-named Kings Bay Coal Company.
Facing accusations that politicians placed incompetent cronies on the mining firm’s board, the government resigned and the state resolved to keep an “arm’s length” distance from its own companies like Statoil and Telenor.
To this day, the Norwegian government stays out of state company boards, electing independent board members to maintain its interests.
The coal mine closed and the government handed the town HUNdRedS of protesters clashed with riot police at a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan yesterday, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency.
More than 50 people were wounded and 80 detained in the clashes, authorities said.
The protest also triggered widespread unrest in the southern city of Jalal-Abad, where hundreds stormed the governor’s office.
Protesters want the northeastern Kumtor gold mine to be nationalised and the company to provide more benefits.
The mine, operated by Toronto-based Centerra Gold, is the largest foreign-owned gold mine in the former Soviet Union. It accounts for about 12 per cent of the nation’s economy and has been at the centre of heated debate between those favouring nationalisation and officials who believe that would deter foreign investment.
The demonstrations began earlier this week when protesters blocked the road leading to the mine in the northern Tian Shan mountains.
On Thursday night, several hundred demonstrators, some on horseback, besieged a power transformer unit in the village of Tamga and cut off electricity to the mine for several hours.
Yesterday, riot police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse some 2,000 protesters who attempted to storm the mine office.