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By John Helmer in Moscow
Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who also chairs the supervisory board of state diamond miner Alrosa, is considering selling rough diamonds from the state stockpile more than a year earlier than has been forecast by the stockpile agency, Gokhran. It is unclear whether Kudrin is trying to lower the price of the rough to be included in a sale of part of the stock Gokhran bought in 2009 from Alrosa for about $1.2 billion, or stampede the stockpile managers into doing what they have so far refused to do. Moscow sources agree that Kudrin is trying to secure the diamond disposals from Gokhran because Alrosa is running out of mine supplies to meet its buyer contract obligations, especially to the Indians.
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by John Helmer - Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
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by John Helmer - Sunday, August 29th, 2010
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by John Helmer - Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
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by John Helmer - Friday, July 30th, 2010
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We need the rest to sharpen up for autumn, and let the squirrel alone to wag his tail and collect his nuts – back soon.
by John Helmer - Friday, July 30th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
In the last three months of 2009, according to the federal Ministry of Finance in Moscow, Russia exported about 250,000 carats of rough diamonds, produced by Alrosa, to the west African republic of Guinea. There is no known diamond cutting or polishing facility in Guinea, and Russia has never exported diamonds to Guinea before. However, illicit sales of diamonds (aka blood diamonds, conflict diamonds) have been reported as using Guinea as a transit point between the mines in Africa and the markets in Israel, Europe, the US, or elsewhere.
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by John Helmer - Friday, July 30th, 2010
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Senator Bob Brown (left image) is the first Australian politician to call for official accountability in the secret dealings the Australian Government has had since 2004 with Oleg Deripaska. He is chief executive and controlling shareholder of United Company Rusal, the Russian aluminiun monopoly registered on the island of Jersey.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
China’s metals giant, the Aluminum Corp of China Ltd. (Chalco aka Chinalco), tied another knot for its future mining plans in the Republic of Guinea with London-based Rio Tinto in a signing ceremony in Beijing today. But Guinea’s Mining Minister Mahmoud Thiam told Business Day this will not deter the government in Conakry from revoking Rio Tinto’s mining concessions in Guinea if the company fails to comply with the mining law and its concession obligations.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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By John Helmer in Moscow
The federal Ministry of Finance has moved the planned privatization for the state shipping company Sovcomflot into next year; increased the bloc of shares to be offered from 20% previously announced to 25%; and put a discount on the target value for the sell-off.
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by John Helmer - Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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