Ministry of Natural Resources plans to announce the date of the auction for the development of one of the largest Russian gold deposit Sukhoi Log in the Irkutsk region in September, reports Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of RF Sergey Donskoy to the journalists of Business News Agency PRIME. Probably, in the beginning of September. But this is for a month, probably", noted Donskoy, answering the question when the date of the auction may be declared. "We’ve got a document prepared on the blank, but some disagreements should be eliminated", added Donskoy. He noted that there are "purely technical" issues left to solve. "There are notes of Federal Anti-Monopoly Service," he said. The possibility of an auction to develop Sukhoi Log is considered for several years. Head of Rosnedra Yevgeny Kiselyov in June at SPIEF said that the agency expects to hold an auction in September or in the fourth quarter of the current year. Vedomosti Newspaper wrote in late July that the Ministry of Natural Resources increased the starting price for the Sukhoi Log to 8.6 billion rubles from 5 billion rubles; and companies in the capital of which Russia directly or indirectly owns more than 25% of shares will be able to take part in the auction. The interest in the deposit was previously stated by SC Rostec, Polyus Zoloto, Polymetal, Nordgold, Kinross, Vysochaishy. According to the State balance of mineral reserves, Sukhoi Log contains estimated resources of gold in categories B + C1 + C2 1,953 tons, silver – 1,541 tons, off-balance reserves of gold - 799 tons. The share of deposit in the country's total reserves of gold makes 28%.
Source: Economical Information Agency «PRIME» http://gold.1prime.ru/