PRESS: Russia to issue export licenses to gold producers very soon

MOSCOW, Apr 10 (PRIME) -- Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will sign a government ruling very soon to allow Russian gold producers to obtain general licenses for exports of refined gold and silver in the form of bullions, Kommersant business daily reported on Friday citing two sources familiar with the matter.

Currently, gold producers are allowed to export the precious metal only under one-time licenses tied to a contract. The ruling will create equal conditions for the companies and banks in their export rights. An Industry and Trade Ministry representative told Kommersant that the draft ruling had been submitted to the government.

Deputy Minister Alexei Besprozvannykh told the business daily that the ministry aims at expanding exports of non-resource non-energy goods to U.S. $250 billion in 2024, including exports of metals products and refined previous metals.

The ministry said that Russia’s gold exports soared by eight times to U.S. $6 billion in 2019, accounting for 12.5% of exports of all metals from the country.

Sergei Kashuba, chairman of the Union of Gold Producers of Russia, said that the general licenses became relevant as the central bank suspended gold purchases from the internal market in April. In 2019, the regulator bought half of the gold produced in the country, but also raised its discount to the gold price of the London Bullion Market Association to 0.12% as of the end of the year from 0.05%.

“We foresaw possible problems with shrinking liquidity last year when the central bank introduced the discount, and we started the work of lobbying the general licenses then,” Kashuba said.

A representative of gold producer Polyus told Kommersant that the company welcomed the decision, and a representative of Polymetal International said that the need to obtain licenses for each deal is one of the major restricting factors for gold exports.

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