Celtic Resources - Mining The Mountain

Alexander Nichiporuk was appointed as Deputy Chief Exec of Alrosa in 2003 - the first time that position existed. His background is he is from Moscow and an economic policy guy with first the USSR and then the Russian Federation - he was a member of the Board of the Federation Ministry of Finance and an advisor to the Minister. His appointment on December 16th is clearly made by the government and it demonstrates the way that Putin is making sure he has people he trusts in power.

Next month Putin is due to meet the President of the Sakha Republic, Vyacheslav Shtirov, who is a past president of Alrosa. Alrosa has always been seen as being part of the Sakha fiefdom but Putin's recentralising of power leaves little room for that. One way or the other it would seem that Putin will decide what happens with the Nezh resource. So if the deal goes ahead it would be with the blessing of the government and you can't ask for better than that. IMHO all he wants is his taxman's piece of the action and the profits from any joint venture - fair enough.

But that still does not explain the delay in the IGA deal. As I said in an earlier post I think Alrosa is short of cash and perhaps they are not able to sign up until they have completed a refinancing. But now with Barrick on board that is irrelevant and Celtic can get on with development and Alrosa can join in when they want.