TSX-listed gold producer Centerra Gold has agreed to further extend the first longstop date of a strategic agreement it signed with the Kyrgyz government on September 11, 2017.

The Toronto-based miner has pushed out the first longstop date – the date by which all conditions precedent to the completion of the strategic requirement are required to be satisfied – to July 23. Last month, the date was extended from May 31, to June 22.

Centerra did not provide much detail about the reasons for the extension, other than that it continued to work with the Kyrgyz government to ensure that the remaining conditions were met. These included the termination of certain legal proceedings and the receipt of finalised land use certifications for the Kumtor gold mine.

However, according to Kyrgyz media reports, Prime Minister Muhammedkaliy Abilgaziyev, who was appointed on April 20 this year, has indicated that his administration is reviewing the agreement and that the new government plans to submit its owns proposals to Parliament.

Centerra and the Kyrgyz government under then Prime Minister Sapar Isakov in September last year agreed to a strategic accord, ending a long-standing legal battle over the Kumtor mine. The miner previously advised that the key terms of the settlement agreement include a comprehensive settlement and release of all outstanding arbitral and environmental claims, disputes, proceedings and court orders, and releases of the company and its Kyrgyz subsidiaries from future claims covering the same subject matter as the existing environmental claims arising from approved mine activities.

The agreement also provides for the termination of the Kyrgyz court order which, among other things, restricted subsidiary Kumtor Gold Company to transfer cash to Centerra.

Aim-listed Chaarat Gold recently made a proposal to buy the Kumtor mine from Centerra as part of a three-way transaction between the companies and the Kyrgyz State consortium, Kyrgyzaltyn. The Canadian mining company, however, has rebuffed the offer and has said that neither it, nor the Kyrgyz government are interested in the proposal.