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LONDON (Alliance News) - Amur Minerals Corp Wednesday said its Kun-Manie nickel-copper project in the far east of Russia is set to benefit after the Russian government cut the country's Mineral Resources Extraction Tax and its Profits Tax.
The Mineral Resources Extraction Tax was a flat 8% a year, but is now graded from zero tax for the first two years through to 8.0% in year eleven. Amur Minerals said this would potentially raise an extra USD100 million in gross revenue because it wouldn't have to send more than 8,300 tonnes of nickel and 2,300 tonnes of copper to the Russian authorities.
The changes to the profit tax regime also means Amur thinks it would be able to recover a minimum of 50% of those additional revenues. The 2% federal portion of that tax has now been waived by the Russian government, while the Amur region in which the company operates has also introduced a new graded profit tax increase, charging nothing for the first five years and then 10% over the following five years.
"The Board is pleased to announce that the investment incentives signed into law are indeed improving the investment environment in Russia as well as the potential of the project. These newly implemented regulations remove some of the financial risk associated with the development of a natural resource project as large as ours and should serve to encourage additional foreign investment in the region," Amur Resources Chief Executive Robin Young said in a statement.
"Amur has been supportive in the implementation of incentives such as this as we continue to work to obtain the mining rights to Kun-Manie and assess technical alternatives to optimise the planned operation," he added.
Amur is currently developing the Kun-Manie site. It has JORC resources of more than 83,000 nickel equivalent tonnes. It had increased the resource at the site in December after results come in from drilling on a new area of the site.
Amur Minerals shares were up 1.8% at 5.6 pence Wednesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1
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