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Rosatom plans to increase gold production by 24 times by 2030 compared to last year. Alexey Shemetov, First Deputy General Director of Atomredmetzolot (ARMZ; mining division of the state corporation), told Vedomosti about this in an interview. According to him, by the end of 2023, ARMZ had about 500 kg of gold. The plan for this year is slightly less than 1.5 tons, and the strategic goal by 2030 is to extract 12 tons of gold per year.

ARMZ's strategic long-term gold mining program provides for several directions. "The first is the development of our own fields, greenfields on the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. These are gold deposits from scratch," Shemetov said.

One of them is the Elkonskoye deposit located in Yakutia, which the state corporation originally intended to develop as a uranium deposit. But in 2018, he said, it became clear that it was unprofitable. "We reoriented the license from uranium-gold to gold-uranium, and from that time on it was primarily about gold mining," he explained. 

First, it is planned to establish the extraction of precious metals, since oxidized gold-bearing ores lie on top at a depth of about 200-250 m, Shemetov said. And already at the expense of the gold mining project, according to the top manager, it is planned to build part of the infrastructure for the subsequent extraction of uranium lying below. As Vedomosti wrote, in January Rosatom discovered the largest Sovinoye gold deposit in Chukotka since 1991 with reserves of more than 100 tons (see the publication dated January 12).

"The second direction [for the development of gold mining] is inorganic growth, i.e. we allow the acquisition of shares in existing gold mining enterprises," Shemetov added. He did not disclose with whom exactly the asset purchase negotiations are underway. But he clarified that M&A deals could happen in the next two years.

The volume of investments in the development of this business line until 2030, according to Shemetov, has not been approved at the corporate level, but the need is estimated at 90 billion rubles – for the development of existing assets and the purchase of new ones.

ARMZ's main business is uranium mining, but the company carries out associated mining of several types of minerals, including rare earth metals and gold. Through a subsidiary of the Elkonsky MMC, Rosatom owns assets in Yakutia and Chukotka with a resource potential of more than 500 tons of gold, follows from the presentation of the Elkonsky MMC, which was reviewed by Vedomosti. Currently, ARMZ owns nine licensed gold and uranium mining sites.

The volume of investments already approved in the gold mining program is 51.5 billion rubles, according to the presentation (the timing of investments is not specified). Of these, 29.1 billion rubles are allocated for the development of the Yakutsk cluster, on the territory of which the Severnoye field and the Yuzhnaya Zone are located. At the April meeting of Rosnedra, Vyacheslav Galaktionov, CEO of the Elkonsky MMC, said that this year the construction of a GOK capable of processing 3 million tons of ore should be completed at Severny. In 2023, 480.5 kg of gold and 524.7 kg of silver were sold at the Severnoye deposit. The remaining 22.4 billion rubles. Rosatom will invest in the development of the Chukotka mining cluster based on the Sovinoe deposit. The resource potential of this cluster, Galaktionov noted, can grow to 150 tons of gold.

The development of the gold mining direction may bring Rosatom additional annual revenue under the program (until 2030) of 753 billion rubles, it follows from the presentation. The goal of the state corporation, as follows from the document, is to create a new business line with revenue of 2% of the total industry and enter the top 10 largest gold mining companies in Russia.

For comparison, the largest gold miner, the Polyus company, produced 82.2 tons of gold last year. In general, gold production in the country over the past year, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Natural Resources, amounted to 421.8 tons, remaining approximately at the level of 2022. The top ten largest gold mining companies in Russia, according to the Union of Gold Producers for 2023, in addition to Polyus, included Polymetal, Nordgold, Kinross, Yuzhuralzoloto, Petropavlovsk, Seligdar, Highest, UMMC, Pavlik company.

Sergey Grishunin, Managing Director of the NRA, believes that Rosatom, as part of its strategy to acquire new assets, may be interested in the assets of the Mangazeya Group and Petropavlovsk. "The latter clearly need technical expertise, as shown by the accident at the Pioneer mine (on March 18, a rock collapse occurred at the Petropavlovsk-owned mine, which led to the death of 13 people. – Vedomosti)," Grishunin stressed.

Vasily Danilov, an analyst at Veles Capital IC, notes that, taking into account the price situation in the gold market, Rosatom's strategy to increase production of precious metals "looks logical." High gold prices persist against the background of statements by the heads of the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank about the upcoming interest rate cuts, uncertainty from the upcoming US elections and military tensions in the Middle East, Danilov adds.

Gold prices are at historic highs. According to the New York Mercantile Exchange's metals trading division (COMEX), the price of gold reached $2,342 per ounce as of May 13. Since the beginning of the year, the metal has risen in price by 14%. Citigroup analysts forecast prices to rise by another quarter from current levels over the next year and a half.

Rosatom has not published financial statements since 2022. In April 2024, the CEO of the state corporation Alexey Likhachev, during a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, reported that Rosatom's revenue in 2023 amounted to more than 2.6 trillion rubles. "in the open part" (excluding the state defense order). In February, Likhachev said that revenue amounted to about 2.5 trillion rubles, including $16 billion from foreign projects, investments – 1.2 trillion rubles. ARMZ's consolidated revenue for the past year, according to Shemetov, amounted to about 35 billion rubles. According to Grishunin's forecasts, by 2030 ARMZ's share in Rosatom's revenue may grow from 1.3% to 5-6%.

Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2024/05/14/1036917-rosatom-planiruet-uvelichit-dobichu-zolota?utm_campaign=newspaper_14_5_2024&utm_medium=email&utm_source=vedomosti