PRESS: Chukotka’s gold output falls, governor asks Putin for money

MOSCOW, Aug 23 (PRIME) -- Gold output of the Chukotka Autonomous District is falling, Governor Roman Kopin said in his July 19 letter to President Vladimir Putin asked for higher financing of geological exploration and better mechanisms of licensing of subsoil sites, Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday.

Kopin said that the gold reserves of the unallocated subsoil reserve fund of the region stand at only 95.2 tonnes, while 2017 gold output amounted to 25.3 tonnes, or 9% of Russia’s combined gold output. The region’s territory has great prospects, and recent geological explorations discovered a large amount of promising sites, he said in the letter, as reported by Kommersant.

A representative of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry told the business daily that the government plans to invest more than 2 billion rubles in geological exploration in the region.

The existing declarative principle of license provision, when the authorities issue licenses for unexplored sites without auctions, has ensured a significant inflow of private investment into gold exploration in Chukotka since 2013. The ministry wants to expand the principle to the sites with a state of exploration from medium to high, the representative said.

According to Kommersant, Putin ordered Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin to consider the issue.

(67.6163 rubles – U.S. $1)

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