Owner of Highland Gold Vladislava Sviblova suffered a series of failures. The gold mining company was included in the UK sanctions list. But a more serious problem for the businessman was a major fire at the Ozerny mining and processing complex in Buryatia, which ended in a criminal case.
Russian gold miners continue to expand their SDN lists. Nordgold of Georgy Smirnov, which was already on the US sanctions list, also came under UK sanctions. On the same list, among others, was Vladislav Sviblov’s Highland Gold company. This became known in November 2023.
Experts believe that this type of “foreign” punishment will not lead to serious consequences, since the gold mining industry has already adapted and established supplies to other countries. And the domestic market is also gradually recovering. But it is still worth considering that sanctions lead to inevitable economic losses for companies, so an optimistic view of what is happening will not help.
However, optimism now would not hurt the oligarch Vladislav Sviblov. Indeed, in addition to the breakdown of interstate cooperation, the gold magnate has to reap the fruits of a fire at one of his enterprises.
November 8 on site Ozerny Mining and Processing Plant In the Eravninsky district of Buryatia, a large-scale fire began in the building of an ore processing factory. The fire covered a thousand square meters, the repair shop burned out completely, and the crushing, flotation and separation shops were damaged, according to a preliminary estimate, by 70%. The situation turned out to be extremely serious.
There are suspicions that the cause of the fire at the mining and processing plant was non-compliance with industrial safety requirements during the work.
The fact is that in 2023, at the deposit of the same name, it was planned to build a new enterprise for the extraction and processing of lead-zinc ore. The facility was supposed to be put into operation in July.
Despite Sviblov’s promises, the workers were unable to meet the deadline. Therefore, construction continued at an accelerated pace, and the haste led to numerous safety violations.
Now the deadline for the commissioning of the enterprise is postponed indefinitely. Most likely, this will take at least a year. But the businessman still has to calculate the losses and determine at whose expense they will be covered.