By John Helmer in Moscow Kosh-Agach is a steppe word meaning ‘so long, tree’. It’s the world’s end, the driest and direst place in fareastern Russia at a remote corner where the frontiers of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China meet. It is also the location of a large reserve of rare metals, including cobalt. So rare […]

by John Helmer - Monday, July 5th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met yesterday at Novokuznetsk city, in the Kemerovo region, with families of miners who were killed at the May 8 explosions that destroyed the Raspadskaya coking-coal mine, one of Russia’s largest. In remarks published on the prime ministry website, Putin hinted that he holds Raspadskaya’s management […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday launched an orchestrated attack on steel prices and the profit margins of Russia’s steelmaking groups during a meeting with the head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), Igor Artemyev.

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The question of who, if anyone, is protecting coalminers intensifies in public, following Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to the scene of the Raspadskaya mine disaster at Mezhdurechensk yesterday. The double explosion of methane in the Raspadskaya mine on the weekend has so far killed 52, with 38 still unaccounted […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The death toll at the Raspadskaya Coal Company’s principal mine is 43 dead, 47 missing, and 7 in hospital in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, Moscow time. The leading producer of coking coal in Russia suffered two methane explosions overnight between Saturday and Sunday. The first was late on […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Strikeforce Mining and Resources (SMR), a molybdenum miner owned by Oleg Deripaska, failed last week in its second try at attracting Chinese and Hong Kong market investors. The first try was in October 2008, when Morgan Stanley and the Bank of China were the arrangers. But that month, as Deripaska’s […]

by John Helmer - Monday, May 10th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow The Evraz Group, Russia’s biggest steelmaker, has announced that it has started construction of a new railroad to serve the group’s iron-ore mine and combine, Sukha Balka at Dniepropetrovsk in the Ukraine. An official statement by Evraz spokesman Alexei Agureyev in Moscow explains that the new line may take six […]

by Editor - Friday, April 23rd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who also chairs the Russian bailout bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), asked Friday for the US Government to signal its support for at least two oligarch-owned Russian companies in the US. The remark, which has taken State Department officials by surprise, mentioned Norilsk Nickel and steelmaker Severstal, whose […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 22nd, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow In the first of a worldwide series of trials scheduled against JP Morgan Chase, the US-based banking colossus, a judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney decided last week that an attempt by JP Morgan to claim A$50.18 million (dollars are Australian unless noted) in fees was […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, March 21st, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow Evraz, Russia’s largest steelmaking and mining group, owned by three Russian oligarchs, continues to wage commercial war against a single Ukrainian oligarch on a Dniepropetrovsk railway track, and through the Evraz group’s Moscow press office. The contest is on home ground for Igor Kolomoisky (bottom image), who went to school […]

by John Helmer - Friday, February 19th, 2010
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