Polyus ups stake in Sukhoi Log JV to 54.6%
MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - The Polyus gold mining group has increased its stake in the SL Gold joint venture, set up with the state Rostec corporation to develop the giant Sukhoi Log gold field, to 54.6%, according to the SPARK Interfax database.
JSC Polyus Krasnoyarsk, formerly JSC Polyus, holds the stake on the joint venture. The stake held by Rostec's LLC RT Business Development decreased to 45.4%.
Polyus exercised an option to acquire a 3.6% stake in the JV and increase its interest to 54.6% at the end of May.
Polyus said previously that it could buy 3.6% of shares for $21 million. The next potential purchase becomes possible at the beginning of 2019: 4.8% of shares for $28 million, the same amount in the beginning of both 2020 and 2021 and finally 5.9% for $36 million at the beginning of 2022.
As reported earlier, Polyus will have the opportunity to acquire 23.9% of SL Gold shares from Rostec for $141 million in all. Rostec originally had 49% of shares in the JV and Polyus has 51%.
SL Gold won the auction for the Sukhoi Log gold field in the Irkutsk region in January with a bid of 9.406 billion rubles. The JORC resource is estimated at 58 million oz of gold at an average grade of 2 grams/tonne.
Polyus is Russia's largest gold producer, mining hardrock and alluvial deposits in the Krasnoyarsk territory, Irkutsk, Magadan and Amur regions and Yakutia. The main beneficiary of Polyus is the son of Suleyman Kerimov, Said.