GV Gold ups stake in JV with Kopy Goldfields to 63%

MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - GV Gold has increased its stake in the Krasny project, a joint venture with Sweden's Kopy Goldfields, to 63% from 51%.

GV Gold said in a financial report to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) that it had at the beginning of August bought 540 additional shares in Bodaibo Holding Ltd., sole owner of a firm called Krasny, which operates the project of the same name in the Irkutsk region.

The partners agreed in Q2 that they would invest 178 million rubles in exploration in 2022.

GV Gold is one of Russia's top-ten gold-mining companies, whose largest shareholders are Lanta Bank CEO Sergei Dokuchayev, Lanta Bank deputy CEO Natalia Opaleva, and LT-Resurs CEO Valery Tikhonov, who each control 20.36% of the shares. BlackRock funds holds a 17.99% stake. The company operates in the Irkutsk region and Yakutia, where production assets are located and exploration is carried out.

Alliance Group shareholders Arsen Idrisov and Musa, Deni and Magomed Bazhaev gained control of Kopy Goldfields following the reverse takeover of Amur Zoloto in September 2020. Kopy Goldfields trades on the Nasdaq First North market in Stockholm. Kopy Goldfields until recently had a portfolio of exploration licenses, mostly in the Irkutsk and Amur regions. The RTO gave it operating mines in the Khabarovsk territory and ranked it among Russia's top 30 gold producers.