Former Evraz exec heads coal miner Northern Star

KRASNOYARSK. April 17 (Interfax) - Vitaly Kulak has been appointed CEO of Northern Star Management Company LLC, the management company for Northern Star LLC, which is carrying out the project to develop the Syradasaiskoye coal deposit on the Taimyr Peninsula, data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities showed.

The changes were entered into the register on April 15. The company had previously been headed by its owner Marina Sokolova since January 30, 2024.

Kulak previously served as CEO of the Promugleproyekt design institute in Novokuznetsk, which according to company materials is part of Evraz, a major Russian vertically integrated steel and mining group.

Northern Star Management Company was registered in 2018 and its legal address is the same as that of companies in Roman Trotsenko's Aeon Holding. Sokolova became Northern Star Management Company's sole owner last December 21, prior to which the company was 25% owned by Alexandra Mutovina and 75% by Sergei Chenchikov, a former member of the board of directors of Novosibirsk's Tolmachevo Airport, which is part of Trotsenko's Novaport group.

It was reported earlier that Trotsenko ceased to be a shareholder of Northern Star LLC last December. Alexander Orekhov, who owns more than 10 other companies that mine brown coal and anthracite, became the company's new owner.

The Syradasaiskoye coal deposit, which is located 110 km southeast of Dikson, has resources estimated at 5 billion tonnes. The project involves building an open-pit coal mine to produce up to 5 million tonnes per year in the first stage and 10 million tonnes per year in the second, a washing plant and necessary infrastructure. Investment in the project is expected to total more than 45 billion rubles by 2025.