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I’m attending this conference for the first time. I like it, as I do all Adam Smith conferences: I was at the first Russian Gold conference in London in 1996, so I have something to compare it with!
The conference is interesting, and the presentations are of a high standard. I’m satisfied with the discussions as well. From my perspective, I would like to meet representatives of banks and financial institutions here as well as producers. Maybe they are here but we haven’t found them yet. For us, as gold miners, it’s important to know where the money is. But in general all my impressions have been very positive.
The price of gold is high enough. Gold miners are feeling comfortable enough – margins are at 40-45%, so we can’t complain. Much of this is due to the high price of gold. Forecast in the media, and those that we have heard at this conference, all suggest that the price will grow further this year.
We have a slightly more conservative forecast, and expect that it will be $1650-1700 per ounce. But even that is a stable enough level for Russian gold miners.
This year the Union of Russian Gold Miners will focus on creating a specialised stock exchange in Russia. We think that this market will start to establish itself, and we feel that the country should have significantly more companies involved in geological exploration. Our country is rich in mineral resources, and they need to be explored more.
And for this reason Russia’s gold miners made the decision last year to create specialised funds. We think it would be a good idea to have a fund that both state and private companies would contribute to, in order to invest money into geological research.
That is the main project that we are working on. Today the companies that belong to the Union have sufficient reserves to last them for 10, 20, even 30 and 50 years, but we understand that geological exploration needs to be invested in right now, for the next generations.