Mangazeya selling Magadan Region gold project to Chinese investor
MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The Mangazeya Group, which is controlled by Sergei Yanchukov, is selling its stake in LLC Geotsvetmet (Magadan Region) to Tyan Khe, a company created with Chinese capital, the group said in a statement.
Mangazeya Mining (formerly White Tiger Gold), a division of the Mangazeya Group, will sell the Chinese investor its 80% stake in Geotsvetmet.
The remaining 20% of the company is controlled by a minority shareholder, who according to the SPARK-Interfax database is Nikolai Tsymbalyuk's LLC Stannolit. This shareholder is the third party to the deal and will also sell their stake. As a result, Tyan Khe will acquire 100% of Geotsvetmet. The buyer is LLC Tyan Khe Mining Corporation, which was founded by a Chinese citizen.
The price of the deal has not been disclosed. The parties plan to close the sale of the stakes by the end of February 2015. A preliminary agreement on the sale was signed on Friday.
Geotsvetmet holds a license to develop a hard rock gold deposit at the Drevny section of the Pridneprovskaya field in Magadan Region. This section has C2 gold reserves estimated at 13.7 tonnes.
According to preliminary assessments, Pridneprovskaya has refractory ore, from which it is more difficult to recover gold. The process requires special facilities that Mangazeya Group does not have in Magadan Region, the company said. Tyan Khe is expected to ship the ore for processing to its plant in China.
"Further development of the deposit at the Pridneprovskaya field does not fit into the strategy of the group's gold mining division according to geographical factors. The sale of this asset will enable us to increase investment in exploration and modernization of deposits being developed in Trans-Baikal Territory," Yanchukov was quoted as saying.
Mangezeya Group is a private Russian vertically-integrated company whose primary businesses are gas production, gold mining and construction.