Representatives of Cameco, the Kyrgyz Republic and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development initiate the 1995 financing agreement for Kumtor.

Centerra is the successor of the gold mining business originally carried on by Cameco Gold as a division of Cameco Corporation. It is the largest gold mine operated in Central Asia by a Western-based company, having produced more than 6.1 million ounces of gold between 1997 and the end of 2007.

• Although the Kumtor area has a history of intermittent exploration dating back to the late 1920s, the actual discovery of the deposit was made in the summer of 1978. Intensive exploration, adit sampling, drilling and geological interpretation work took place between 1979 and 1989, culminating in an initial reserve statement issued by the USSR State Committee on Reserves in March 1990.
• In 1992, Cameco and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic entered into an agreement to evaluate and develop the Kumtor gold deposit. Cameco acquired a one-third interest in Kumtor Gold Company (KGC) from the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, with Kyrgyzaltyn (a joint-stock company wholly owned by the Kyrgyz Republic) holding the remaining two-thirds interest. Kumtor Operating Company (KOC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cameco Gold International (CGI), acted as operator of the mine for which it received a management fee.
• KOC retained Kilborn Western Inc. (presently SNC Lavalin) to prepare a feasibility study of the Kumtor deposit, which was submitted in November 1993. Construction and development began in 1994 and was completed in early 1997 at a cost of about US$450 million.
• Commercial production began in the second quarter of 1997 and more than 502,000 ounces were produced that year.