Renova’s gold business delays IPO to 2013

Kamchatka Gold, a gold miner controlled by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova asset management group, will hold an initial public offering no early than the second half of 2013, Vekselberg said at the World Economic Forum. “This year the company is unprepared for the IPO, not from the viewpoint of reporting but from the viewpoint of developing new mines and building processing facilities. We have plans and a program, which we need to implement, and also we have to carry out additional geological prospecting,” Vekselberg said on the sidelines of the forum. Kamchatka Gold, which holds licenses to develop six major gold fields on the Kamchatka Peninsula, previously planned to hold its IPO in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of 2010. The firm, the largest gold miner in the region, produces about 2 tons of gold annually. Its resource base comprised over 14 million troy ounces (over 440 tons) of gold as of December 31, 2011. Kamchatka’s overall gold reserves are estimated at over 800 tons.