Uzbek tax structures arrested assets of Zeravshan-Newmont, a joint venture where 50% belong to Newmont, the second largest producer of gold in the world. INTERFAX quotes its sources as saying that "the authorities do not permit the loading of gold for transportation out of Uzbekistan. In fact, some of the gold and certain assets were arrested by tax structures." Debts of the Uzbek-American joint venture to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development amount to $20 million. The latter already informed Zeravshan-Newmont that its London bank account was no longer available to it. The source said that the latest developments made normal functioning of the joint venture impossible and that it would do everything to defend its rights even including appeals to international courts of arbitration. Newmont said last week that it might sell its interest in the joint venture that is developing Muruntau open-pit in which over $225 million were already invested. According to Newmont, its share in the Uzbek-American joint venture amounted to nearly $94 million on June 30, 2006. "Uzbek courts ruled in June 2006 that the joint venture owed the Uzbek state $48 million by way of unpaid taxes. The joint venture challenged the verdicts. The government of Uzbekistan initiated a series of actions that compromise the acting accords and activities of the joint venture," a spokesman said. The matter concerns the decision of the Navoi Regional Court that sided up with tax structures demanding taxes from the Uzbek-American joint venture for 2002-2004. Along with everything else, the authorities revoked certain tax privileges Zeravshan-Newmont had enjoyed.

Newmont, State Committee for Geology and Mineral Resources, and the Navoi Mining and Smelting established Zeravshan-Newmont in 1992 to develop the Muruntau open-pit which is believed to contain 220 million tons of ore. Average gold content is 1.4 grams per ton of ore. A source in the CIS market of precious metals told INTERFAX in April that Interros might buy Newmont out of the joint venture.

Oxus Gold of Great Britain is another foreign gold-mining company operating in Uzbekistan.

Vremya Novostei, August 4, 2006, p. 9