News

August 18, 2008

With The Help Of Some Powerful Backers, Highland Gold Is About To Be Catapulted Into The Big League

By Rob Davies

When Roman Abramovitch invested US$400m into Highland Gold Mining in December 2007 it was fair guess that it was not just to get a 32 per cent stake in a 150,000 ounce a year gold producer. As Minews listened to Henry Horne, Highland’s chief executive, run through the progress on Highland’s four big projects, the scale of the ambitions of the company gradually became clear. In short, Highland is going to be producing between 630,000 and 650,000 ounces of gold a year by 2013. That will catapult it right past its rival small and mid-tier producers to take in into the big league.

A first half trading update released on 12th August details how the improvements at the flagship Mnogovershinnoye (MNV) mine in the Khabarovsk region of Russia are already having a positive impact on production. In the first half of 2008 the mine produced 69,000 ounces of gold, an 18 per cent increase on the previous year. Mr Horne ascribes this to the partial implementation of the upgrading plan assembled last year in collaboration with Barrick, which has a 20 per cent stake in Highland, and...