UPDATE 2: Russia to auction Sukhoi Log on January 26 – minister

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MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- Russia will auction the Sukhoi Log gold deposit on January 26 with the initial one-time payment amounting to 8.55 billion rubles, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters on Friday.

“The auction of the Sukhoi Log gold field will be held in late January 2017. It will be announced today and will be held on January 26. The auction’s conditions were worked out and coordinated. The initial payment amounts to 8.55 billion rubles, and we plan no adjustments of the sum prior to the auction’s start,” he said.

The Federal Mineral Resources Agency later in the day released a statement saying that bids will be accepted until December 28.

The agreement will be signed for 20 years, foreign investors will be barred from the auction, the authority said.

Earlier on Friday, the government published a ruling to auction the field signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. According to the government, Sukhoi Log’s inferred resources under B, C1 and C2 categories amount to 1,953 tonnes of gold and 1,541 tonnes of silver, while off-balance gold resources stand at 799 tonnes.

Gold producers Polyus, Polymetal, Nordgold, Kinross, GV Gold, and state industrial corporation Rostec showed interest in the field, whose area amounts to 7.94 square kilometers.

(63.6807 rubles – U.S. $1)

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