Member Info for Mjd2020

Has been happening this week. Below features some words from a discussion about the Northern Sea Route and foreign interest in the region. Rest of the article is about words from the Governor of a neighbouring region which has a port on the route so no link to EUA but the words about international interest in the wider area may be of interest:

The first thing that foreign colleagues from India, the UAE, Thailand asked about the dialogues was about the prospects for the development of the Arctic, - said the Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexey Chekunkov. - And this is absolutely understandable. The Arctic is of great importance for the world economy: mineral resources - fertilizers, nickel, cobalt, platinum, copper; hydrocarbons - oil, gas; pulp and paper production and timber products, diamonds. And also shipbuilding. Just imagine, when you stand on the pier of the famous Sevmash enterprise, you can see from one point how six submarines are being built at the same time. And in the entire history of its existence, the company has built 140 boats: no one else in the world has such competence.

According to Alexei Chekunkov, this concentrates the attention of the entire world community on the Arctic in a variety of industries, and this is inextricably linked with the understanding that the Northern Sea Route - a shorter road from Asia to Europe - is becoming a key transport corridor.

https://dvinanews.ru/news/detail/14331

They’ll be needing to file accounts by the end if the month? There will be some sort of update there at least.

Next accounts made up to 31 December 2023

due by 30 June 2024

It’s a strange one B1ll, he won’t name them but then how are they supposed to hide the fact - how many £1B mining projects are there in the Far East and Artic?

The agency that promotes benefit in the Far East and Artic is stating the case for state support in attracting investment yet can’t actually name a recent successful mining project case for fear of sanctions…Still, possibly promising that such a project seems to have been able to secure investment, be good to know which one it is.

"Recently, during the meeting of the Supreme Mining Council, a real mining project was cited as an example (I can't name it in order not to impose sanctions) with investments of 115 billion rubles. We counted it without benefits, there was a discounted payback period of 18 years, IRR (investment efficiency ratio) - about 12%, which is not interesting for business. With all the benefits and preferences, the project received support of 38 billion rubles, that is, a third of the cost, the payback was reduced to 10 years, the IRR increased to 18%. As a result, everything worked, the investor is implementing the project, believes in its prospects," Chekunkov said.

"Without benefits and preferences, it is impossible to develop the Far East and the Arctic. And as for the "price tag" (benefits and preferences - IF) for the budget, state support does not just give results, it already brings income to the budget.

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/964776

Still advertising for digger and truck drivers and electrical maintenance… adverts dated in May but looks to be the same roles as some of the other jobs posted earlier in the year (but not the geologist or foreman or bulldozer driver roles that don’t appear anymore from what I can see).

Could be that there’s more staff needed or these may just be the same jobs not filled yet for whatever reason.

https://ekaterinburg.hh.ru/search/vacancy?from=employerPage&employer_id=8964792&hhtmFrom=employer

A PGM related agreement coming out of the King of Bahrain’s visit to Russia today.

https://www.interfax.ru/business/962036

Apparently there were 30 different investment projects being implemented between the two countries in total.

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/961952

Details are limited on the NN project but at least this shows some appetite for PGM deals.

Our auditor’s face when signing off the political risks statement in the new accounts: 😬

Sounds like Russia would be supportive of a deal involving a Chinese buyer going off these comments from Putin earlier:

Putin said that the business of the Russian Federation and China at the Expo will be able to enter into joint projects

BEIJING, May 17. /TASS/. Russian and Chinese entrepreneurs at the Expo events will be able to enter joint projects, which will be supported by the governments of both countries. Confidence in this was expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the Russian-China Expo and the Interregional Cooperation Forum.

"During numerous Expo events , Russian and Chinese participants will be able to get acquainted with the vast economic potential of the two countries, find new opportunities for commercial partnership, attract investment, exchange technology and enter new joint projects and agreements, which, I am sure, will be strongly supported by governments," Putin said.

"From the Russian side, the heads of the largest companies came to the Expo - leaders in their industries, such as Rosatom, Rostec, Russian Railways," the Russian president shared. "The coverage of the sectors of the economy is very wide: from mining of mineral resources and oil and gas chemistry to construction and metallurgy, light industry and digital technologies."

Putin said that the "Made in Russia" fair was organized at the Expo. Its guests "can try and purchase over a thousand different names of high-quality Russian products," said the President of the Russian Federation. 

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/20826131

Be good to hear what the mining projects are.

Snippet below and link to full article is: https://tass.ru/ekonomika/20819677

"Business cooperation between Russia and China demonstrates steady growth. The investment portfolio is replenished annually with new joint projects. Now there are more than 80 large projects in the work for a total amount of about 200 billion dollars in the field of transport and logistics, automotive and agriculture, gas chemistry and mining," the press service of the ministry conveyed Reshetnikov's words.

Looks like quite big visit based on the write up.

No sign of anything to do with EUA but a lot of meetings planned by the looks of it.

An EUA link of sorts (tenuous?) is that amongst a lot of other people, Boris Titov is going - the business ombudsman who supported EUA’s tax case. I didn’t know he worked on a China related committee too which will be why he’s going but his name rang a bell when I saw it. Small section from story below:

The President will be accompanied by Business Ombudsman Boris Titov, who is also the Chairman of the Russian part of the Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development, Gennady Timchenko, who is the Chairman of the Russian-Chinese Business Council, as well as the head of Sberbank German Gref, entrepreneur Oleg Deripaska, heads of RDIF, VTB, NOVATEK, Rosneft, VEB. Russian Federation, Rusnano, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Business Russia Kirill Dmitriev, Andrey Kostin, Leonid Mikhelson, Igor Sechin, Igor Shuvalov, Sergey Kulikov, Alexander Shokhin and Alexander Repik.

"During the negotiations, it is planned to discuss the general state and prospects for further development of bilateral cooperation in various fields, to consider current global and regional problems," Ushakov said.

At the same time, he noted, "trade and economic cooperation will be a priority.

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/960434

Assuming we get the accounts filed some time before the end of June, this will include the going concern comment which will shed some light on things.

Last year they assumed sale of concentrate would contribute to justifying the going concern basis. They’d also mentioned appealing against the tax rate but obviously couldn’t include potential tax rebates in the cashflow forecast at that time. I think having won the tax case they may have delayed selling the stockpile since if they don’t need the funds and prices are low it’s possibly worth holding back.

Activity wise, it follows that if prices are low, why not prep knowing that the stockpile can be sold and then kick into production with a head start when the time is right (assuming cashflow allows - which is an assumption that it does).

It’s a bit of a mystery but we should get some clarity when the accounts are filed - hopefully they don’t have problems getting these audited and then we will likely get a fuller update in June or this month going off the corporate calendar.

None directly. I’d say South Korea being one of the big car makers and also having a hydrogen policy could be a good buyer of PGMs though. The comment that despite the obvious difficulties that SK is willing to cooperate on a case by case basis is more positive than if they were to rule out any interactions. I’m not suggesting that a SK company is going to make an offer for MT by any means but they could buy some green hydrogen or need materials for the catalysts so the more end users for this the better for whoever does end up mining at the Kola sites.

Maybe interesting to see what type of economic cooperation they come up with - hydrogen has been discussed previously.

“President Yoon Seok-yeol said on the 9th that “the relationship with Russia will cooperate on a case-by-issue cooperation and oppose or be vigilant depending on the position.” “The war in Ukraine is an illegal attack under international law, and the arms trade between North Korea and Russia is a violation of the UN Security Council's sanctions resolution on North Korea,” but it was interpreted to mean that it would manage relations with Russia amistically.

President Yoon said this to a question from a foreign reporter asking, "What is the red line that South Korea cannot tolerate in relation to the North Korean-Russian arms trade" at a press conference for the 2nd anniversary of the Yongsan president's office on the same day. President Yoon said, "Russia is a country that has had good relations with us for many years, but we have a different and uncomfortable relationship with us regarding the recent war in Ukraine and the introduction of weapons by North Korea. We will manage the relationship with Russia as well as possible, and we will pursue economic cooperation and common interests together." Some interpret that the government has entered management so that Korea-Russian relations do not get worse. It is said that Russian Ambassador Lee Do-hoon attended the fifth inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the 7th. At the time, most Western countries, including the United States and Japan, boycotted the inauguration ceremony.”

https://www.hankyung.com/amp/2024050989101

The reason given for not producing in the interim update was:

“Site preparation work was completed during the first quarter of 2023, but due to the sale process being Eurasia's main priority, no metal concentrate has been produced at West Kytlim since the end of 2022.”

This approach baffled me due to the risk of running out of cash if no sale.

What did come out from the tax case was that the higher rate made producing unprofitable in some cases so maybe not producing helped to make the case that was eventually won:

“The unjustified application of the coefficient to the extraction of gold-platinum concentrate has led to the amount of the tax, which in many cases makes production unprofitable.”

https://www.pgplaw.ru/news/press-releases/yuristy-pepelyaev-grupp-zashchitili-interesy-klienta-v-vs-rf-v-ramkakh-spora-o-ndpi-pri-dobyche-zolo/

Whatever the plan is or isn’t, they still appear to be advertising for truck drivers, excavator drivers and bulldozer drivers in addition to the mining master job they’d advertised in March. All meals provided on-site too at the company’s expense 👨‍🍳🍜

Could just be a lot of site prep but hopefully there more to it.

https://ekaterinburg.hh.ru/employer/8964792?hhtmFrom=vacancy

“doing our best to get a result on the sales process while living with complex issues affecting our ability to manage our newsflow”.

Sounds like that the RNS machine is f***ed and Keith didn’t show the new Co. Sec how to fix it properly when he did his handover.

Without power of Attorney as per second mention in below

This seems to have happened on 24/11 too if the site is correct. Formatting doesn’t show but on the site it suggests that Vasily was replaced by Oleg as General Director with Power of Attorney. May not be relevant as Vasily could still be in charge at group level but there appears to have been a change at the KK level in any case.

Information about individuals entitled to act without a power of attorney

Hide changes

VASILY VLADIMIROVICH KUDRIN, INN:771708514305. Position: GENERAL DIRECTOR

KARMANOV OLEG SERGEEVICH, INN: 661706901998. Position: GENERAL DIRECTOR

https://star-pro.ru/proverka-kontragenta/organization/1026601102725--zao-kosvinskij-kamen

Was in Murmansk last week:

https://invest.nashsever51.ru/list_item/news/v-murmansk-s-rabochim-vizitom-pribyl-genkonsul-indii-v-sankt-peterburge

Brief mention of mining as one of the areas of discussion. Sounds early stages and no specifics but could be positive that the visit happened if India are considering investing in Murmansk.

"Today we would like to discuss the main areas of cooperation between our region and India in various spheres. At the regional level, cooperation in such areas as science, technology and innovation, pharmaceuticals and nuclear energy, mining has great potential. We thank you in advance for your interaction and further joint work," said Olga Vovk, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk region, in her welcoming speech”

Moscow. April 22. INTERFAX.RU - Norilsk Nickel plans to move the melting capacity of the Copper Plant, the modernization of which has become more complicated due to problems with Western equipment, to China, having concluded a joint venture with one of the Chinese companies, said Vladimir Potanin, President of Norilsk Nickel, in an interview with Interfax.

"The project will allow us to get away from the big losses, which are caused by the current difficulties with calculations, refusals of supply, discounts on our metal, creation of inventories," he explained. According to the company's calculations, because of this, Norilsk Nickel can now count on only 80% of its pre-sanctions income.

The decision to transfer part of the capacity to China was also influenced by the recent sanctions of the United States and the United Kingdom, as a result of which the London Metal Exchange (LME) is prohibited from accepting new batches of non-ferrous metals from Russia.

"This pressure made us think about how to deliver our goods to the markets. And one of these non-standard solutions is to transfer part of production to direct consumption markets," Potanin stressed.

"We transfer our environmental problems, problems of calculations, problems of market access, problems of customization of our goods for the consumer market to where they are solved most effectively, in this case - to China," said the head of Norilsk Nickel. "In return, we get the opportunity to extend our value chain and get advanced competencies that both the company and the country need."

These competencies are technologies for the production of battery materials, the raw material for which will also be lithium, which Nornickel plans to produce at its joint venture with Rosatom for the development of the Kolmozerskoye field.

The construction of capacities in China will be synchronized with the disposal of capacities at the Copper Plant, explained the head of Norilsk Nickel, and will take place beyond the horizon of 2027. "In terms of production plans and volumes, the process will be neutral. In the future, due to the effect of increasing production and enrichment, we expect an overall increase in production," he said. The copper concentrate will be delivered to China by the Northern Sea Route.

The project received political support and was included in the agenda of the Russian-Chinese summits, Potanin stressed.

The news is being supplemented

https://www.interfax.ru/business/957064