By John Helmer in Moscow Hong Kong Exchange executives and the Hong Kong stock market regulator appear to be cracking and splitting under the strain of a phantom share listing and sale for United Company Rusal, Russia’s aluminium monopoly and one of the world’s leading producers of bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium. Although anonymous sources […]

by Editor - Monday, December 21st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow To all junior miners, resource project developers, and investors in the risky wilds of Kazakhstan, be of good cheer — a Supreme Court judgement issued on December 11 in Sydney, Australia, has awarded the equivalent of US$11.4 million in compensation, penalties, and costs against a group of lawyers who have […]

by John Helmer - Monday, December 14th, 2009
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by John Helmer - Thursday, December 10th, 2009
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Relayed by John Helmer in Moscow Question for Toby: has the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rejected the share listing application by United Company Rusal? Toby’s answer: Affirmative grunt. For at least two months the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its listing division, and in parallel the state regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) have […]

by John Helmer - Monday, December 7th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow In signals issued just ahead of today’s scheduled meeting of the Hong Kong Exchange Listing Committee, the committee announced a further postponement of its ruling on the Rusal application until December 7. The exchange has issued no public explanation. Media reports claim the reason is that the 28-member committee lacked […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
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Put a little Hong Kong whitewash on your Rusal brush, and look at the difference it makes to your teeth…   Before After By John Helmer in Moscow A left turn and quick walk out of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) building on the waterfront in Central Hong Kong will take you to the […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, November 15th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow One celebration drink too many in Bar Vogue, in downtown Almaty, has turned out to leave a very bad taste for lawyers advising hard-rock mining and oil project start-ups in Kazakhstan. In a 216-page judgement issued this month, after three years of litigation across half the globe, a group of […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 29th, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow Three Japanese grain traders — Itochu, Sojitz, and Mitsui — are competing to establish the first major Russian grain export terminal at a Russian port on the Sea of Japan. Rapid growth of demand for wheat in the Asian markets, and the price and transport advantages of Russian grain, have […]

by John Helmer - Friday, July 31st, 2009
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By John Helmer in Moscow MOSCOW – It is the clash of the titans of the global nickel, aluminum, copper, bauxite, cobalt and platinum markets – Vladimir Potanin’s Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company, versus Oleg Deripaska’s United Company Rusal, the world’s biggest aluminum producer. Deripaska, Russia’s richest man, is seeking to take over Norilsk, […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow China is a power behind global commodity flows as well as prices. But Beijing has been slow to understand that it is the horse that pulls the cart; the whip hand belongs to the coachman. Chinese negotiators have already made one colossal mistake in pricing their supply of liquefied natural […]

by John Helmer - Friday, June 13th, 2008
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