News

March 03, 2010

Russia’s Eighth Largest Gold Miner, GV Gold, Goes In Search Of New Funds, And, Possibly, New Opportunities Too

By John Helmer in Moscow

In the junior gold mining business, hope springs eternal. So naturally it did, when GV Gold, the Irkutsk-based junior gold miner controlled by Sergei Dokuchayev, entered a recent Moscow miners’ beauty contest to announce a new share issue. Maxim Gorlachev, head of corporate development, told the Adam Smith Institute metals conference in Moscow that the company’s target is US$300 million. The money will be used in order to lift the volume of gold produced from the current 111,000 Troy ounces per year, to four times that amount, to 438,000 ounces over the next four years. As to the likelihood of an IPO, the speculation is that the shares might be listed and sold in Hong Kong, London, Moscow or Toronto. But nothing has been confirmed.

Asked to confirm what GV Gold is planning, a company spokesman told Minesite: “Certainly the placement, if it is carried out, will differ from the one planned in 2007. The company has grown. It has become a holding with two mining assets, in Irkutsk and in Yakutia.” GV Gold takes its name from what is still the lead asset, the Golets Vysochaishy deposit in Irkutsk.
 
As to what valuation GV Gold thinks the market should put on its current and future prospects, the spokesman...