Are the assets of Auriant Mining being prepared to be nationalized?
The Rostec State Corporation, through its subsidiary Perspective Mining Projects JSC, received the right to develop the Ak-Sug copper-molybdenum deposit in Tuva. Previously, the corresponding license belonged to the Golevskaya GRK, which is part of the Intergeo company of oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov and planned to build a mining and processing plant here with an annual production of 500 thousand tons of copper-molybdenum concentrate. However, last May, Rosnedra revoked the license from the Intergeo structure due to violation of the infrastructure construction deadlines specified in the document. Obtaining a license for Ak-Sug not only gives Rostec the opportunity to gain a foothold in Tuva, but also to realize Sergei Chemezov’s ambitions to monopolize the extraction of minerals fossils. The next step of the head of the state corporation may be an attempt to establish control over one of the largest Russian gold ore clusters – the Tardan ore cluster. The license for its geological study and exploration, as well as the extraction of ore gold here, belongs to the Tardan Gold company, a “subsidiary” of the Swedish Auriant Mining, which continues to operate in Russia, despite economic sanctions and Sweden’s recent accession to NATO. The co-owners of Auriant Mining are the Cypriot offshore company Bertil Holdings Limited and the Swedish company GoMobile Nu AB, and the beneficiaries are the Swedish businessman Per Ahlgren and a number of citizens of Great Britain and the USA, including the English Lord Peter Daresbury. The activities of Tardan Gold are accompanied by high-profile scandals: from numerous environmental violations and restrictions on the right to use subsoil, to facts of transferring part of the enterprise’s profits abroad, which are now being investigated by security forces. According to media reports, the former head of Tuva Sherig-ool Oorzhak and his son, ex-deputy of the republican parliament Andrian Oorzhak can lobby the interests of foreign business. Against this background, there are reports of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s intention to file a lawsuit to nationalize the Russian assets of Auriant Mining, which contributes to the realization of the monopolistic aspirations of the head of Rostec.
Rostec will replace Intergeo in Tuva
Controlled by a state corporation “Rostec” enterprise “Promising mining projects” (JSC “PGP”) became the only participant, and, accordingly, the winner of the auction for the right to develop the Ak-Sug copper-molybdenum deposit in Tuva. A license to use a subsoil plot is granted for 20 years.
According to Kommersant, at the initial cost3.4 billion The winner offered a one-time payment of 3.8 billion rubles. The balance reserves of the Ak-Sug deposit are estimated at 3.6 million tons of copper, 78 thousand tons of molybdenum, 83 tons of gold, 289 tons of silver and 83.3 tons of rhenium.
Previously, the exploration and production license belonged to Golevskaya GRK (part of the company“Intergeo” billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov), which planned to build a mining and processing plant here with a processing capacity of 24 million tons of ore and an annual production of 500 thousand tons of copper-molybdenum concentrate. The start of production was planned for 2024, the start of the mining and processing plant and production output – for 2026.
Last May, Rosnedra decided to revoke the license of Golevskaya GRK: the reason was a violation of the infrastructure construction deadlines specified in the document. Thus, the implementation of the key Intergeo project for the extraction of non-ferrous metals in Tuva will now be carried out by the head Sergei Chemezov state corporation.
Environmental violations of Tardan Gold
Rostec’s receipt of a license for Ak-Sug in the network was assessed, on the one hand, as a desire of its leadership to gain a foothold in the region, on the other, as a desire for a monopoly on mineral extraction. In this context, Rostec’s claims to Tardan ore cluster – one of the largest Russian gold ore clusters.
The license for its geological study and exploration, as well as the extraction of ore gold belongs to the company “Tardan Gold”which in 2019 received a positive conclusion from the Glavgosexpertiza on the project it prepared for the construction of a gold-extraction vat leaching plant for processing ores from the Pravoberezhnoe deposit (part of the Tardan ore cluster). The project completion date was set at 2027, the volume of investments was estimated at 6.4 billion rubles.
Everything would be fine, but last August the media reported on large-scale violations committed by the company and an order issued by Rosnedra to eliminate them. The issue was non-compliance with environmental legislation: soil contamination with sulfate ions 30 meters downstream from the waste disposal site, exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations of benzopyrene in emissions, lack of waste accounting and storage of waste in inappropriate places.
It is worth noting that Tardan Gold has committed environmental violations before. Thus, in March 2022, the Arbitration Court of Tuva satisfied the claim of the Yenisei interregional department of Rosprirodnadzor, collecting more than 80 million rubles – debt for negative environmental impact (NEI), while providing the debtor with an installment plan for making payments for a period of 34 months.
As it turned out, during the verification of the correctness of calculation, completeness and timeliness of payment for the NVOS for the period 2019-2020, Department employees identified a discrepancy between the actual volumes of overburden and the volumes reflected in the declarations. The management of the enterprise refused to voluntarily pay off the multimillion-dollar debt, as a result of which judicial intervention was required.
Earlier, in 2019, Rosprirodnadzor identified 21 violations in the activities of Tardan Gold. After this, by order of the federal Ministry of Natural Resources, the company was limited in the right to use subsoil. The reason was the extraction of ore gold without an agreed and duly approved technical project for the development of the Tardan deposit, and groundwater without an agreed water intake project.
Western miners of Russian gold
But environmental problems are only one facet of Tardan Gold’s illegal activities. At the same time, it became known about financial fraud discovered by security forces and the transfer of part of the company’s profits abroad, specifically to Sweden. Here it is necessary to emphasize that Tardan Gold is part of the company’s structure “Auriant Mining”whose headquarters are in Stockholm. That is, despite economic sanctions, Western businessmen continue not only to work in Russia, but also to siphon money from their Russian subsidiary.
The work is being carried out on a grand scale. This is what the specialized online publication writes about the activities of Tardan Gold “Prometall“:“Auriant Mining, through its subsidiary LLC Tardan Gold (named after the Tardan deposit), is engaged in geological exploration and mining of gold in Russia. Since 2004, its portfolio of assets has included four projects in the Republics of Tyva and Khakassia, as well as in Transbaikalia, where the Solkokon field is being developed…
The Swedish subsidiary produced 319.6 kg of gold in Russia in the first half of 2023, while in the same period in 2024 it produced only 218.4 kg. However, the price of gold remains high, so sales volumes have not been greatly affected, with 274.5 kg sold in the first six months of 2024, compared to 282.8 kg in the same period in 2023.”
Tardan Gold’s financial performance is impressive: the company’s revenue in 2023 amounted to 3.1 billionprofit – 444.1 million rubles (revenue a year earlier – 3.5 billionprofit – 825.9 million rubles). At the same time, part of the profit received was also transferred to foreign accounts!
Co-owners “AuriantMining» edition «Prometall“calls the Cyprus offshore “BertilHoldingsLimited» and Swedish “GoMobile Nu AB” businessman Pera Algren. The latter is also a co-owner and chairman of the board of directors “Mangold Fondcommission” – a company engaged in providing financial services. Apparently, foreign policy conflicts do not in the least prevent Mr. Algren from doing business in Russia. And Sweden’s recent entry into NATO does not bother him at all.
On the Internet you can find references to other beneficiaries of Tardan Gold, citizens of Great Britain and the USA: Chairman of the Board of Directors Lord Peter Daresburycouncil members Preston Haskell And Jukke Pitkäjärvi. In fact, the gold miner’s lack of Russian shareholders attracted the attention of the security forces to the company. Allegedly, the Prosecutor General’s Office is even ready to seek in court the nationalization of the enterprise’s assets.
Will foreigners be “asked to leave”?
Of course, such large-scale activities of foreign businessmen in Tuva would be impossible without the support of high-ranking Russian officials. According to the publication Nasha Versiya, the former head of the republic may act as long-term lobbyists for the interests of Tardan Gold and, accordingly, Auriant Mining Sherig-ool Oorzhak and his son, ex-member of the Parliament of Tuva Andrian Oorzhak. It is possible that today the family is making every effort to ensure that the owners of Tardan Gold preserve the company and continue working in the region. Only the security forces are capable of thwarting these far-reaching plans.
In the context of the topic of relationships between gold miners and security forces, we can recall the following remarkable incident. In November 2011, the Kyzyl City Court of Tuva convicted the general director of Tardan Gold. Mikhail Khaserverin and executive director of LLC“CentrAsiaGoldPromStroy” Alexander Ereminfinding them guilty of attempting to bribe an FSB officer.
For a bribe of 200 thousand rubles the security officer was asked to “turn a blind eye” to the lack of a license for the storage and use of sodium cyanide, a highly toxic substance that was illegally used by Tardan Gold in the extraction of the precious metal. The arrested top managers admitted guilt and escaped with fines.
Speaking about the possible nationalization of Russian assets of Auriant Mining, it is worth noting that Tardan Gold has a number of “subsidiaries”, including companies specializing in the extraction of precious metals “Uzhunjul” And “GRE-324”registered, respectively, in Khakassia and Transbaikalia. Both enterprises are operating in the red: at the end of last year, Uzhunzhul’s losses amounted to 859 thousand rubles“GRE-324” – 35.2 million. And both have licenses: the first – for the exploration and production of mineral resources, the second – for the use of subsoil.
It seems that the finances of the subsidiaries can also be transferred offshore? It is not surprising that State Duma deputies were concerned about the situation, who at one time described in detail the situation with the gold miner in an appeal addressed to Evgenia Petrovawho headed Rosnedra until the end of last October. But it seems that the future of Tardan Gold still depends on the coordinated actions of the FSB and the Prosecutor General’s Office. In addition, we should not forget about the monopolistic aspirations of Mr. Chemezov.
