Sukhoi Log (in Russian the name means “Dry Gulch”) is no longer an asset in which Kremlin and other government officials see value in mining. Value for themselves, that is. Russia’s largest unmined gold deposit, and the second largest unmined deposit in the world, Sukhoi Log is located in remote forests northeast of Lake Baikal, […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 11th, 2005
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – Last Friday, some days ahead of deadline, Norilsk Nickel issued a terse announcement. “MMC Norilsk Nickel,” it read, “a 20% owner of Gold Fields, announced today that, in accordance with previously stated intentions, it voted against the proposed transaction with IAM-Gold.” On the surface, this appeared to be nothing more than the […]

by John Helmer - Monday, December 6th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – When we last left our Great White Hunters, the Anglo American chief executive and two of his companions, they had arrived in Moscow for two days of meetings, Monday and today. Like the legendary Allan Quatermain himself, they were intent on covering their tracks, while manoeuvering into position for their prey. But […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 30th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -The headline in the Moscow newspaper came straight out of Rider Haggard’s century-old adventures. “Renova masters Africa”, it said, going on to describe how Victor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch behind the Renova company, recently visited South Africa to arrange local approval of a plan for the largest manganese mine in the world, and […]

by John Helmer - Monday, November 29th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – There is an old Russian tradition of never speaking ill of the powerful. But in March, when President Vladimir Putin plucked Yury Trutnev from provincial obscurity to become his minister of natural resources, it was far from clear whether Trutnev had been chosen because he was already a powerful figure, or because […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, November 16th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) — In Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”, the adventure begins with the approach of Blind Pew, emissary of Captain Flint’s pirate crew, to deliver the Black Spot, the verdict of death, to Billy Bones, the crewman who held Flint’s precious treasure map. In fear of his life, Bones was always on the alert […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, September 16th, 2004
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MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) – The official debut in Moscow this week of Brian Gilbertson as the new chief executive officer of SUAL International is the third swallow to fly. The first was Ian Cockerill’s Moscow round with Vladimir Potanin in April, following Norilsk Nickel’s purchase of a 20% stake in Gold Fields, with the promise of […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
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In the snow, Russian peasants still say, the law is like a sleigh. A clever judge can steer it either way. Vladimir Potanin, the controlling shareholder of Norilsk Nickel (NorNickel), Russia’s largest mining company, ought to know. In a decade of acquiring the assets that comprise his Moscow-based, multi-billion dollar holding Interros, he has had […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 3rd, 2004
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MOSCOW – Either way you look at it, Norilsk Nickel’s decision to spend $1.16 billion to buy 20 percent of the South African goldminer Gold Fields, much of it in borrowed funds, is a wager on President Vladimir Putin having too much to do right now to notice. If Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov, the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 30th, 2004
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