By John Helmer in Moscow At the Antwerp diamond conference Alrosa and De Beers switch positions on value of diamond beneficiation. Diamond-miners are wolves; diamond-cutters are sheep. At least that’s the way it has usually appeared to the governments of countries fortunate enough to supervise lucrative mineable diamond deposits. Expressed in terms of the diamond […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 25th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian diamond manufacturers have reacted critically towards Alrosa chief executive, Sergei Vybornov, attacking key proposals he made at last week’s Antwerp Diamond Conference. Vybornov ousted Alexander Nichiporuk from the top spot at Alrosa in February. But after a string of misstatements drew fire from domestic policymakers, he has limited his […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Litigators and analysts look for cash inside Russia’s global aluminium giant. Most of the trouble Oleg Deripaska, controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, has faced in the court claims confronting him in the past, and the one from Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney) he currently faces in London, comes from the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Mystery American company takes concession to mine large antimony reserves in Tajikistan. Antimony is one of the rare metals for whom new applications are being devised in electronics, battery manufacture, and flame retardants, but whose worldwide supply is fast running out. That imbalance between supply and demand makes for highly […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 22nd, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow De Beers’s arsenal resists Usmanov attack on the Grib pipe and the Arsenal pitch. A public relations blitz under way this month in London and the UK media has produced charges and counter-charges involving Alisher Usmanov, an iron-ore and steel magnate. He is accused of conspiring with other Russians to […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 21st, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Open warfare declared at Russia’s largest gold miner exposes Lord Gillford, and starts a run at Polyus assets. On their annual day of atonement for a year of sinning, the biblical Hebrews used to beat a goat over a cliff; or drive him into the desert to be devoured by […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 18th, 2007
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By John Helmer Armenian officials in charge of mining and natural resource licensing say they have yet to decide whether to approve the transfer of ownership of Zod, Armenia’s principal goldmine, from the Vedanta Resources group company, Sterlite Gold, to Madneuli, a Georgian company financed by Sergei Generalov, a Russian shipping magnate. According to recent […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow A public relations blitz under way in London and the UK media has produced charges and counter-charges involving Alisher Usmanov, an iron-ore and steel magnate, who was named in US court papers as one of the principal defendants in the affair of the Grib pipe, a major diamond deposit in […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Gold Fields’ sale of its Venezuelan gold assets to Rusoro is a profitable relief There is a traditional Russian toast that can be roughly translated: “May we have more pies and doughnuts, fewer black eyes and bruises!” After selling its loss-making Venezuelan gold assets at a profit to Rusoro Mining […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 14th, 2007
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By John Helmer in Moscow Controversy deepens in Moscow over a controversial gold licence extension for Highland Gold, and licence trouble starts brewing elsewhere Somebody in Moscow seems to think that Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, is in horticultural terms ‘a weed’. In one of Jim Thompson’s thrillers, the killer is told by […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 14th, 2007
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