The probably largest auction of mining rights in recent Georgian history will take place on Wednesday, February 29, at 12:00 at the Agency of Natural Resources of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (Gulua St. #6; Tel: (832) 727248).

We encourage media and NGO representatives and anybody who is interested to join us in attending this auction, to improve the transparency of this process.

The winner of the license will receive the right to extract gold and copper (and other minerals) from an area in the Shida-Kartli region for 27 years - starting from April 15 2014(!).

The starting price of the auction is GEL 110 million, with bidding steps of GEL 500,000  - we thus expect the final price to be significantly higher than that, potentially several hundred million GEL.

To our best knowledge, the territory that is covered by this license includes the mine in Bolnisi, which currently accounts for most, if not all, of Georgia’s gold and copper (ore) exports -- 3.9 and 5 per cent of Georgia’s total exports in 2011. Last year, Georgia exported gold worth USD 110 million, and USD 85 million worth of copper ore and concentrates.  

The auction announcement can be downloaded from our website, the original is also accessible online.