TASHKENT • Uzbek authorities have frozen gold shipments and seized assets from US group Newmont Mining, one of the biggest gold producers in the world, over a tax dispute, the company said yesterday.

Officials are “no longer allowing gold to be shipped out of Uzbekistan and some gold has been seized by the tax authorities, along with other assets” of the Zarafshan-Newmont joint venture, documents published on its website said.

Uzbekistan’s tax committee declined to comment on the issue.

Last month, Newmont said it might consider selling its 50 per cent interest in the joint venture, worth about 94 million dollars, after a court ruled it should pay 48 million dollars in taxes and fines from 2002-2005.

Uzbek tax authorities said that a government decree protecting joint ventures from changes in tax laws and providing financial and operational benefits was no longer applicable during that period.

But Newmont, which says it will continue efforts to appeal against the tax ruling, argues that the decree was in force up to June this year when Uzbekistan scrapped tax privileges awarded to a number of foreign-linked enterprises.

Uzbekistan, a former Soviet Central Asian nation, is one of the world’s leading exporters of gold and cotton.