Russia's gold mining giant plans to boost precious metal's output amid soaring prices

Sputnik news agency and radio 19:09 GMT 27.06.2021

The price tag of gold per ounce skyrocketed in 2020 as global investors rushed to buy the precious metal as a safe haven asset at a time when the global economy descended into sudden crisis caused by the pandemic lockdowns.

Russia's largest gold mining company, Polyus, has announced plans to ramp up the precious metal's output in the next two years. In 2021, the company expects more modest results compared to the previous year.

However, as global gold production slumps, Polyus is planning a big comeback in 2022 and 2023. The current slowdown in the company's output was caused by the decline in the quality of the ore extracted from the mines, but Polyus hopes to recover from the drop in the coming years.

"The essence of our short-term strategy is providing an increase in production while maintaining costs", Polyus' CEO Pavel Grachev explained in an interview with Bloomberg news agency.

When it comes to its middle-term strategy, Polyus has even more good news for its investors. Not only does the gold giant plan to divert a significant part of its net profits to pay dividends amid slight growth of capital expenditures, but it also expects to open a new mine at Sukhoi Log in 2027. The latter is remarkable for its estimated vast gold deposit – around 40 million troy ounces of gold, which is one of the biggest deposits in the entire world.

Another thing that makes Polyus a lucrative asset for investors worldwide is its recent shift to renewable sources of energy. Right now, 90% of the overall power supply to the company's mines is produced by hydropower plants. With the recent trend for green investments in western countries, when large stock market traders evaluate not only a company's financial results, but also its impact on climate change, it only plays into the hands of Polyus' market value.