The gold mining company, previously owned by Buryatzoloto (a Nordgold subsidiary) and supposedly ran out of gold, has restarted production actively.
There are suspicions that the previous owner carefully planned the revival of the mine under a false and very doubtful name.
Zun-Kholba LLC, which is developing the Zun-Kholbinskoye deposit (Okinsky district of Buryatia), announced successful gold mining in 2021. So, last year, the company’s gold productivity reached 10.7 ounces (333 kilograms), which was 42% more than the figures for 2020. The company’s revenue was 1.34 billion rubles, with 124 million going to taxes. This information is available on the official website of the company.
According to the general director of Zun-Kholb, Sergei Garmaev, in the near future there will be more precious metal after finding new reserves with a high gold content. In 2022, the company plans to increase metal production at the mine to 600 kilograms, and then to one ton.
Less than a year back, the Kholbinsky mine was bought from Buryatzoloto. At that time, it was getting ready to stop, and the deposit was considered inefficient due to the low gold content in the ore. However, the mine has a future,” says Sergey Garmaev.
It should be remembered that PJSC Buryatzoloto (Nordgold) sold its gold mine to an obscure Cypriot company called Chesio Limited. There is no information about the buyer or the details of the upcoming Buryatzoloto deal. Only the registration date of Chesio Limited on December 17, 2019 in Cyprus is known.
The main reason for the deal was the alleged reduction in gold reserves and unprofitable production. However, something in this story does not make sense, as earlier Buryatzoloto kept the Zun-Kholbinskoye deposit by discovering large reserves of gold. It occurred in 2018. Then the metal's productivity sharply reached more than one and a half tons per quarter, which is nearly ten times higher than the previous production. However, even at that time, the company foresaw: the reserves would be enough for two or three years at most.
So, as it turned out – in 2021, the gold reserves in the mine decreased to a critical minimum. But is Buryatzoloto really unable to explore the hidden reserves for the second time, on which now the doubtful Cypriot company will earn billions? Most likely, the company still knew about the reserves, but did not officially announce them. There were reasons for this.
Initially, the sale of the Zun-Kholba mine to an unknown offshore company was seen by many as a good option for Buryatzoloto to avoid a claim for serious environmental damage caused over the years of operation and not spend money on its liquidation. Analysts then even predicted that in the foreseeable future a similar fate awaits the Irokinda underground mine, located in the Muisky district and also owned by Buryatzoloto.
Furthermore, the owner of Nordgold, Alexey Mordashov, has long been known for his greed, as he is reluctant to share taxes at all. And in 2019, the company authorities justify the decrease in tax payments with some form of “investment costs”, which can mean anything. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the company avoids taxes, and Buryatia does not benefit from gold mining.
