By John Helmer in Moscow At current prices, old King Coal is a merry old soul in Russia. In the bad old days, when Boris Yeltsin was in charge of Russia, all you had to do to acquire a steelmill on the cheap was to cut off its gas, electricity, iron-ore, scrap metal, or its […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 24th, 2008
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Lakshmi Mittal buys loss-making Russian coalmines in the middle of nowhere. Meerkats are among the most charming creatures in the animal kingdom, and they are expert at coping with the extremes of the Kalahari. The meerkat bands mark their foraging territories; but they are also opportunists — if rival bands […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, January 31st, 2008
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Ukraine demand for coking-coal weighed against rising death toll in possible decisions to shut down coal mine where 106 miners have been killed and many injured in methane explosions. Ukrainian miners have proved that when it comes to methane, lightning can strike twice, and thrice, in the same place. This […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The apparent owner and board chairman of the Zasyadko mine has been targeted for blame in Ukraine’s worst mine explosion by surviving miners. Miners who survived the catastrophic methane explosion at the Zasyadko mine in the Ukraine on Sunday say that the mine’s chairman and apparent proprietor, Yefim Zvagilsky, is […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The Russian government has become the first in the world to tell billionaire industrialist Lakshmi Mittal to take his cash and his steel mills elsewhere. India’s and England’s richest individual, and the world’s largest steelmaker, Lakshmi Mittal has been suffering from a defect of hearing, apparently not understanding the message, […]

by John Helmer - Saturday, October 6th, 2007
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Coal mining in Russia is a dirty business, and mine company finances are a black box. If the coal mines lose money, as they claim in recent financial reports, that could be because the coal is being priced for purchase by the steel company which consumes it, and also controls […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The worst-ever coal mine disaster in Russia, with a death-toll of at least 102 miners, and not less than another 8 still missing, hit the Ulyanovsk mine in Siberia on Monday afternoon. Owned by Yuzhkuzbassugol (“South Kuzbass Coal”), one of the largest coal and coking coal producers in Russia, the […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Less than a year after announcing the purchase of major coalmine group Prokopievskugol for about $100 million, Vladimir Lisin, one of Russia’s richest men and proprietor of the country’s most profitable steelmaking group, Novolipetsk, is selling the coamine back to the state for a rouble. That is considerably cheaper than […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
No Comments »