By John Helmer, Moscow Nord Gold, the Russian mining company owned by Alexei Mordashov, has run into a grave new legal challenge to one of its most valuable gold-mining operations in the West African Republic of Guinea. The bad news comes after the unexplained failure of Mordashov’s company to confirm that it has been approved […]

by John Helmer - Friday, November 12th, 2010
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By John Helmer, Moscow Now children, this is a story of the boy who was so keen to go on holiday, he packed his bag too soon. The three insiders familiar with the matter, on whom Bloomberg relies, seem to have got the story wrong, at least so far as the timing of Alexei Mordashov’s […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow How much gold should potential investors in Alexei Mordashov’s gold-mining venture, now named NordGold, think they are buying into?

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Severstal steel and mining group, owned by Alexei Mordashov, has issued a prospectus this week for the issue of up to $3 billion in loan participation notes to restructure the group’s current debts. The issue is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 11th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow On October 6, Peter Hambro claimed in an interview with Reuters Television that his proposed stock exchange listing of IRC Ltd., a titanium and iron-ore miner in the Amur and Jewish Autonomous Region of fareastern Russia, is his idea of a gift: “We’ve always wanted to give Russian people access […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Sacre-Coeur Minerals (SCM) is a small Toronto-listed goldminer prospecting the malarial swamps of Guyana (South America), so far without striking El Dorado. The company is so small, its website doesn’t publish financial reports. But the required filings with the stock exchange indicate that it is producing no gold; its operating […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 24th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Rumpelstiltskin is one of the nastier dwarves in the canon of scary children’s stories. But for investors in goldmining, it is worth remembering that his investment in gold production proved to be pretty successful until he got careless when talking to himself, and revealed his name.

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The west African republic of Guinea has never before been so important to Russian mining companies – and to the even bigger internationals. So when Guinean voters go to the polls for the runoff round of their presidential election, much is at stake – and not only for our Russian […]

by John Helmer - Friday, September 17th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Endeavour Financial Corporation, a Cayman Island goldmine investment fund, announced on Monday that it has found buried treasure in a surprising place — in Alexei Mordashov’s pocket. The fund, which is listed in Canada and controlled by Frank Giustra, has announced that it had sold out its 43% shareholding in […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow As Ronald Reagan used to say, when stumped for words in the presidential debate against then President Jimmy Carter: There you go again! When the Russian owners and managers of High River Gold announce they are launching bankruptcy action in the Russian courts against Prognoz Silver LLC, you ought to […]

by John Helmer - Monday, June 28th, 2010
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