Tag Archives: Udinsk

Kinross makes permanent exit plans for Russian gold operations

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Kinross Gold, after making plans to suspend its operations in Russia at the start of the month, is now in exclusive negotiations with a third-party mining company regarding a potential sale of 100% of its assets in the country.

On March 2, the company said it was making plans to suspend its Russian operations following Russia’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine. Both its Udinsk development project and Kupol mine (pictured) were part of this plan, which, while considering suspension, would focus on the safety and well-being of its more than 2,000 employees in addition to its obligations to manage and mitigate the mine’s environmental impact on an ongoing basis, it said.

Subject to this disclosure, the company has been developing a transition plan to divest its Russian assets.

Kinross said on March 29 it had received a number of unsolicited proposals regarding its Russian business and was now in exclusive negotiations with a third-party mining company regarding a potential sale of 100% of its assets in the country. Any such divesture or change of control would be subject to Russian government approval, it noted.

As part of the exclusivity agreement and to properly maintain assets pending a change of control, the company’s Russian subsidiaries are continuing to operate during the transition period. Kinross will also continue to manage and mitigate the environmental impacts of its operations. This includes overseeing monitoring systems and transporting industrial materials to the Kupol mine that are not permitted to remain at the port to maintain safety and regulatory compliance.

“Kinross will continue to prioritise the well-being of its more than 2,000 employees in the country as it develops its transition plan,” it said.

The parent company will not benefit financially from the operations while the transition plan is finalised, Kinross clarified, with current activities funded through resources already in-country, with no additional investment required by the parent company.

Kinross expects to treat its Russian business as an asset held for sale from an accounting perspective until a change of control is completed.

Speedcast to expand VSAT network at Kinross’ Udinsk open-pit gold project

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Speedcast, a communications and IT services provider, says it has received a contract from JSC Chukotka Mining and Geological Company, a Kinross Gold subsidiary, to expand the company’s very small aperture terminal (VSAT) network, supporting the development of the Udinsk Gold open-pit mine to two new license areas in Russia’s Far East.

The Kayenmyvaam and Kavralyanskaya areas are early-stage gold projects that previously depended on satellite phones for connectivity. According to Kinross, the Udinsk prefeasibility study is expected to be completed in the December quarter of 2021, and will focus on an initial three-stage crush heap leach process flow and potential early works related to infrastructure, with the goal of fast-tracking construction. First production at Udinsk is anticipated to occur in 2025.

Speedcast will provide a fully managed wide-area network (WAN) connectivity service for Kinross and has installed dedicated WAN connections over VSAT at each site to establish a corporate virtual private network.

The contract is the second extension received by Speedcast since its original start of service in 2020. Recently, Speedcast doubled bandwidth speeds available at the Udinsk mine.

“Kayenmyvaam and Kavralyanskaya sites required a compact Ku-band VSAT terminal, which needed to be flown in by helicopter due to their extremely remote locations,” James Trevelyan, Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Emerging Markets at Speedcast, said. “Providing this type of critical communications solution at the most challenging and remote sites is our business.”