UDS Golden group cut down hundreds of hectares of forest in front of the Sverdlovsk Ministry of Ecology. Chulkin’s business was reminded of the consequences in court
LLC “Secondary Precious Metals” (VDM) is obliged to restore 46 hectares of forest at the expense of the Karpinsky forestry cut down on the Shompinsky site. The corresponding decision was taken by the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region at the suit of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the region.
The forest was cut down in 2019 and should be restored within a year. However, the defendant did not perform the necessary work.
Photo: from the video presentation of UDS Golden group
Similar decisions were taken against VDM in a number of proceedings. So, the company was obliged to restore 50 hectares instead of those cut down in the area of the Vagran River, where gold miners are actively working, 19.3 hectares – at the expense of work on the placers of the Olenya River.
In addition, part of the obligations for reforestation also falls on the company in connection with the accession to it in 2023 of the production artel Yuzhnozaozersky mine. In the first instance, the arbitration ordered her to plant a forest on 37 hectares. VDM is trying to challenge the decisions.
It should be noted that earlier the Ministry of Ecology did not file such claims against Yuzhnozaozersky mine in court. Considering the periodic need to resolve production issues with the Ministry of Ecology of the Sverdlovsk Region, market participants historically working in the region prefer not to save on reforestation and land reclamation and not to enter into litigation with the department on these issues. For example, one of the leading players, the Neiva artel, annually invests from 90 to 140 million rubles in this activity. At the same time, the actual purchase of seedlings for the restoration of about 100 hectares costs about 15 million rubles.
The UDS Golden group announced the acquisition of Yuzhnozaozersky mine in 2020. According to the Kontur.Fokus system, 87.3% of the charter capital of the artel was issued to the director of UDS Golden group Evgeny Tyunin, 12.7% to Secondary Precious Metals LLC, in which 100% belongs to UDS Golden Group LLC (99% of the authorized capital is controlled by Alexey Chulkin). In parallel with the acquisition of the artel, which had four licenses for deposits with total reserves of 568 kg of gold, UDS Golden group created a new legal entity – Yuzhnozaozersky mine LLC – which received the right to mine minerals.
So far, there is no need to talk about stable financial results of the group’s Sverdlovsk assets. Yuzhnozaozersky mine LLC last year reduced its revenue by 3 times – to 50 million rubles, but nevertheless received a net profit of 21 million. Secondary precious metals reduced revenue by almost 4 times – to 254 million rubles – and went into minus 58 million.
Now UDS Golden group companies are actively trying to get new sites for gold mining. In particular, “Secondary Precious Metals” submitted an application for bidding for the right to mine at a site with predicted resources of category C1 of 2.298 tons of gold and a starting price of 53 million. 4 more companies took part in the procedure: the artel of prospectors “Neiva” [1], LLC Artel Prospectors Khakassia, LLC Trade House Uralizvest and LLC Stroyholding. During the auction, the price rose to 498.4 million rubles. Moreover, the main competition unfolded between Neiva and Secondary Precious Metals.
“Other participants have already settled on prices of 200-300 million. But Secondary Precious Metals kept raising the stakes. It was obvious that the company had money. As a result, she stopped, and the lot went to Neiva. Theoretically, the price could be raised even higher. For a subsoil user, the ceiling at the auction is 10% of the price on the London Stock Exchange that is possible to obtain gold from the site with a preliminary deduction of a bank discount of 5%. That is, if today the price per gram is 5600-5700, then at the auction for deposits, rates could reach up to 1 billion rubles, ”the interlocutor of the publication shares his opinion among gold producers.
CEO of UDS Golden group Alexey Chulkin
Photo: uds-group.ru
This is not the first time that Aleksey Chulkin’s companies have shown aggressive trading tactics. So, in 2016, UDS-Energy, controlled by him, won the auction for production rights at the Borulakhsky oil and gas area in Yakutia, raising the price by 162 times. However, in the end, she refused the license, and Rosneft received the right to produce, whose price was much lower. The created situation has become one of the reasons for creating a register of unscrupulous subsoil users participating in trading procedures.
The Ural gold miners, in turn, add that, given the current fierce competition for plots, it is worth considering the social and environmental responsibility of the players when distributing mining licenses when bidding. However, so far these proposals have not hzikhidtidekrt decorated.