vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #162 / Business / Reading article...

Krai gold rush to start

Primorye will soon be mining its own gold from a deposit in Krasnoarmeysky County to the north of the krai. In March, a krai-level licensing commission will issue a license to the highest bidder among interested mining companies. Previously, Russian gold miners couldn’t develop the gold deposit for lack of essential technologies. Now, with newly-acquired western technologies, mining companies will be able to profitably extract gold from the deposit.

Ships turned to salvage

Two enterprises in the Nakhodka Free Economic Zone will salvage metal from military equipment retired from army and navy units throughout the Russian Far East. The FEZ administrative committee recently signed a deal with the Ministry of Defense to allow Nakhodkapolimetall and Dalintermet to recover metals from ships, tanks and other equipment.

Tartarstan wants Nakhodka port shares

The Republic of Tatarstan is interested in buying shares in Nakhodka’s ports and an unfinished oil-refilling facility in Nakhodka’s Vrangel Bay. The city administration says Tatarstan wants a foothold in the city because the western Russian republic’s machine manufacturing plants plan to import bauxite from Australia via Primorye ports, and the Nakhodka oil refilling facility would be suitable for the storage of bauxite.

Krai investigates 28 companies

The krai-level tax inspectorate, investigating 28 local companies that lease sea and air vessels to foreign firms, have demanded that the bankrupt Vladivostok Base of Trawler and Refrigerator Fleet (VBTRF) and cash-strapped Dalzavod, pay $2 million to the krai budget. The companies hadn’t transfered their receipts from the lease arrangements to special krai hard-currency accounts and, as a result, tax inspectors have seized their assets.