Unacceptable to Have Gold Ore Processed Abroad – Putin

MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) – It is unacceptable to have gold ore processed abroad, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference in the Kremlin.

“There are things that I consider to be unacceptable for us, and shipping gold ore abroad to be processed is one of them. We see neither taxes nor gold here. This can’t happen,” Putin said.

“Everything else will be carried out in keeping with the understandings reached and the instructions set down at the meeting in Magadan,” he said.

Some Russian and foreign companies have aired plans to ship concentrate to Kazakhstan and other countries, but they are not doing so in practice. Ore mined at the Dukat field was processed this way in Soviet times, though.

Putin chaired a meeting on the gold industry’s development in Magadan in November. Then he called for fiscal measures to make mining gold fields in remote areas more appealing, and for lowering taxes for members of the public wishing to invest in gold.

He also called for increasing the weighting of gold in the country’s gold and currency reserves.