Russians have no time: China will mine Russian gold in Transbaikalia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement with Beijing on the joint development of a gold deposit. The Russian government has approved an agreement on joint development with China of the Klyuchevskoy gold deposit in the Trans-Baikal Territory. On the part of the PRC, about $ 500 million will be invested in the project. This is the first joint Russian-Chinese project in the field of gold mining. According to preliminary estimates, the volume of gold mined will amount to six tons per year.

Viktor Tarakanovsky, chairman of the Union of Prospectors of Russia, called this agreement inevitable, since Russia is not developing the Far East properly, so China is coming there.

"They[Chinese] negotiated for a very long time. I know that for some other fields, including Natalka in the Magadan Region, but they refused. I heard that one of the reasons for the refusal was the Chinese demand that they[in a joint project] there were at least 51% of the shares. According to our laws, a foreign company cannot have more than 25% … Probably, to strengthen the Russian-Chinese friendship, our government decided to make this deal ", - said Tarakanovsky.

The main motivation for China is the development of the Russian Far Eastern territories, he said: “Russians do not want to master[these territories] … Hundreds of thousands of people have left the Far East in recent years. And people do not go there, despite the general calls. "

According to Tarakanovsky, the Russian state does not care about the people living in the Far Eastern Federal District: this is evidenced by a sharp increase in electricity tariffs, expensive transportation, and so on. “For example, in order for a person to fly on vacation from Magadan, he only has to pay 120 thousand rubles for an air ticket in one direction. A million rubles - just to fly on vacation for a family of four! - complained the chairman of the Union of Prospectors of Russia.

From a technical point of view, Chinese gold mining is no different from Russian. At the same time, 35% of Russian processing plants operate on Chinese equipment, he noted: “It is much cheaper than ours, domestic, and not to mention the Western. Often they give us the equipment "for nothing" - they say that, they say, they will return everything later, when the gold goes … "

Nevertheless, the Klyuchevskoye gold deposit is not the most interesting object for miners, Tarakanovsky said. " In this region of Transbaikalia, there are generally relatively small reserves of gold. I think the general stocks are there [in the Klyuchevskoye field ] are also relatively small - about 60-70 tons. Previously, such[Place of Birth] not [developed] - they were referred to as "imbalances", that is, to disadvantageous from the point of view of production. Such poor content is now being mined only in the Urals "- he explained.

“If they plan to extract six tons, then the content there is only half a gram per ton.- continued Tarakanovsky. - This is very poor content. Let's say the Canadian company Kinross Gold develops deposits that are 20-30 times richer, - they would do this [Transbaikal] gold is not coveted … It is possible that the Chinese just want to take a tentative step and then move on. "

The gold miner recalled that at one time the Indians tried to develop this deposit, but they ultimately abandoned this project: "To process this amount of ore requires a lot of electricity, and it is now becoming more expensive."

Russia in this case, in his opinion, resembles a lyrical hero from a song by Vladimir Vysotsky: "Let them try, I'd rather wait," as he sang in his time. "

Russia produces a total of about 280 tons of gold per year. Thus, if mining is launched at the Klyuchevskoye gold deposit, this will give no more than 3% of the total production in the country. The PRC produces about 400 tons per year, that is, this field will give them no more than 1.5%.

The main buyer of gold in Russia is the Central Bank - about 200 tons per year. In 2018, Russia should reach the level that was under Stalin in 1953 - 2,500 tons of total reserves, Tarakanovsky said. “If you believe the official Chinese statistics, they have already overtaken us a long time ago - they have 2,700 tons. But China is a closed country. Nobody can say exactly how much gold they really have”, - concluded Tarakanovsky.

The United States has the largest reserves of gold - about 7,000 tons. In second place is Germany with 8672 tons of this precious metal.