By John Helmer in Moscow MOSCOW – The magnitude and growth rate of demand from China still drives global commodity prices. But in the fertilizer sector, where China this month has had to agree to a price for potash more than double what it paid last year, the inflexibility of Chinese demand for food has […]

by John Helmer - Monday, April 21st, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Potash prices are soaring and the major beneficiary is LSE quoted Uralkali, Russia’s largest producer. A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains. That is what the Dutch used to say, while watching their tulips grow. But for the world’s potash miners, meeting this month in […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russia’s big copper contest goes on the boil Russia’s biggest copper contest is going to be a very private affair. Even if there are just two, possibly three contenders, all Russian household names, predicting who will win over the next 90 days of the contest may prove to be more […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, April 10th, 2008
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Norilsk Nickel shareholders ask where the cash for the new deal will come from Oleg Deripaska and his United Company Rusal were trounced in their bid to elect three directors on the Norilsk Nickel board today. The vote saw Vladimir Potanin’s Interros holding, plus most of the free float of 40%, put a full-stop to […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
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After a series of battles with Newmont, Indonesian officials and NGOs keep up the anti-mine fight, this time targeting the Toka Tindung gold project. Author: John Helmer Posted: Monday , 31 Mar 2008 LONDON – The boomerang is an Australian aboriginal word for a throwing stick; but the weapon itself isn’t indigenous to Australia. Its […]

by John Helmer - Monday, March 31st, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Russian multi-mineral fertilizer group calls for investor upgrade ahead of IPO. Traced on the map, Verkhnekamskoye (“Upper Kama”) looks like a molar tooth, with an unusually deep root. On the ground, in the Perm region of central Russia, it is the second largest deposit of potash known in the world. […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 28th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Deripaska and Prokhorov holding companies trade claims over Norilsk Nickel deal contract. Onexim, the Moscow holding unit for Mikhail Prokhorov, has broken its silence on the troubled sale of a 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel — in a manner of speaking. Terms for the deal between Prokhorov and Oleg Deripaska, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 27th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow When T.S. Eliot was summing up what he knew of hollow men, he concluded: “this is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a whimper”. This is also the way Russia’s biggest-ever hostile takeover, Oleg Deripaska’s bid to take control of Norilsk Nickel, is ending. The contract deadline […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Polyus public shareholders in the dark about proposed new gold mine asset sale Sixty years elapsed between the first US patents issued for the yo-yo, and 1928, when the wooden axle on a string became a fad in California, and then spread across the US. By 1965, the yo-yo was […]

by John Helmer - Friday, March 21st, 2008
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By John Helmer in Moscow Uralkali keeps the initiative as potash breaks $600. A series of Russian government decisions this month, awarding new mining licences at a premium valuation; imposing export duties; and regulating the domestic price of fertilizers for the next five years has triggered fresh forecasts for the direction of Russian potash producers, […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, March 20th, 2008
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