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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s Evraz steel group makes bid for Cape Lambert iron-ore. Speculation that the Evraz group (EVR:RU), Russia’s largest steelmaker, is preparing a takeover bid for Cape Lambert Iron Ore Ltd (CFE:AU), the West Australian junior miner, drove the latter’s share price up by 9% in the first day of trading, […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian steel and mining group faces government investigation after announcement of spinoff and IPO plan for coal-mining and ferroalloy units The Mechel group (MTL:US, NYSE; MTLR:RU, RTS) — Russia’s leading specialty steelmaker and one of the leading producers of coking coal in the world — has lost 5% off its […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Despite a brace of judicial rulings from the English courts against blackening reputations as a business tactic, United Company Rusal has reacted to the defeat of its candidates for the Norilsk Nickel board with this blistering ad hominem attack: “Moscow, 8 July 2008 – UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian government gears up to open new, and old, foreign investment deals. The new Russian legislation to supervise foreign investment in the mining and resource sectors is already taking gold miners by surprise. According to a Russian junior, which is planning to list on the domestic stock market shortly, it […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow The proverb that good things come to those who wait has recently been used to sell a brand of ale that takes a long time to pull into the glass. An older version makes the waiting less optimistical. “Wait, thou child of hope,” coined the 19th century aphorist, Martin Tupper, […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Oleg Mitvol, Deputy Head of Rospriradnadzor, looks to be on the way out, perhaps for stepping on too many toes In the first days of aerial warfare, during World War I, pilots had no tactical guidebook to help them plot their offence or defence. Attackers could fly unexpectedly out of […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow Oleg Deripaska is not having a good week. On Monday, he revealed he was at maximum stretch to garner just enough shareholder votes for two seats on the Norilsk Nickel board, plus a seat for his highly unpredictable and unreliable shareholding ally, Mikhail Prokhorov. On Thursday, Justice Christopher Clarke issued […]

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By John Helmer in Moscow “The cleverest subtlety of all is knowing how to appear to fall into the traps set for us,’ is the maxim coined by La Rochefoucauld, one of the cleverest of the 17th century French courtiers. His wounds as a soldier, and the even more serious ones he took in politics, […]