Alrosa steps up efforts to brighten up fluorescent diamond sales
Alrosa, the world’s top diamond miner by volume, is betting on a new strategy to boost its sales amid an industry-wide slowdown that has hit small companies the hardest. The…
Russia and CIS
Centerra receives permits to restart Kumtor
Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) has received approvals and permits to restart open-pit mining at its Kumtor operation in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Kyrgyz state agency has approved Centerra’s 2020 mine…
Norilsk Nickel weighs capital investment and dividend strategy
Norilsk Nickel (US-OTC: NILSY) plans to boost spending on new projects over the next decade to increase production and capitalize on the growing electric car trend, but investors may need…
Diamonds Symposium explores industry challenges and solutions
The second annual Diamonds in Canada Symposium, organized by The Northern Miner, took place in Toronto in June. This year’s featured speakers included Chris Jennings, chairman of North Arrow Minerals,…
Why 2020 could be a better year for diamonds
Following a strong first half of 2018, the balance of the year and most of 2019 was disappointing for the diamond industry. The most recent 18-month stretch has been described…
US Vanadium acquires Russian-owned production facility in Arkansas
U.S. Vanadium, a private company in which venture capital firm Elysee Development Corp. (TSXV: ELC) has a 15% stake, is acquiring a Russian-owned production plant in Hot Springs, Ark., that…
Kinross denies Reuters report ‘putting future deals in Russia on hold’
A Reuters news report stating Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) is “putting future deals in Russia on hold” after recently acquiring a development project in the country is “an…
Odds ‘n’ Sods: Surviving Soviet-style exploration
After the collapse of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europe was a rich hunting ground for mineral exploration companies. In the mid-1990s, I was part of a small, enthusiastic team assembled…
Kinross picks up Chulbatkan in US$283M deal
Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) is leveraging its expertise as a cold-climate, heap-leach operator with a 24-year operating history in Russia by acquiring N-Mining’s Chulbatkan project in Russia’s Far…
Orsu Metals tallies first resource at Russian gold project
Five years ago a private group of Russian businessmen, known as Sibzoloto Partners, acquired the Sergeevskoe gold project in southeastern Siberia, 550 km from Chita, an administrative city near Russia’s…
Interview: North American Palladium CEO Jim Gallagher on global palladium markets
The following is an edited transcript of a portion of a podcast interview with James Gallagher, president and CEO of North American Palladium (TSX: PDL; US-OTC: PALDF). Gallagher discusses the…
Editorial: Central banks are major gold buyers in 2019
With the gold market’s supply and demand numbers coming in for the first two to three months of 2019, one of the features of this year that’s coming into focus…