October 7, 2025, 4:17 PM
Russian gold miners are laying the groundwork for infrastructure
, economic columnist for Monokl magazine, host of the Grafonomika channel, and expert at the PRISP Center, discusses the development of in Russia.
By the end of the decade, Russia will overtake China and become the world's largest gold producer. In particular, the advanced stage of completion of one of the world's largest projects, Sukhoi Log, promises a significant increase in precious metal production on an already high base.
Domestic gold mining is a modern industry, built in Russia, not inherited from the USSR. Soviet deposits are largely exhausted, since gold, unlike non-ferrous metals, oil, and gas, has a very short cycle time for efficient deposit production—sometimes 10–15 years. Of course, this requires adjusting for industries where gold is a byproduct of primary production, such as Norilsk Nickel or UMMC, but this represents approximately 5% of total production.
God scattered gold deposits across the planet, and He didn't place it on our doorsteps. Today, Russia's main gold fields are located in hard-to-reach places, accessible only by helicopter: Chukotka, Kamchatka, Yakutia, and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Furthermore, gold mining hasn't made it easy—the world ran out of "easy gold," a la the Klondikes, back in the last century. However, placer gold in Russia accounts for one in every five ounces mined. However, such deposits are nowhere near as rich as they were at the dawn of discovery.
There are no official figures for Russian gold production today. Expert estimates put the lower limit at 330 tons per year (the upper limit is 345-375 tons), or $44 billion at today's price per ounce. This enormous figure is equivalent to agricultural exports. Over 90% of gold mined in Russia is exported. But to achieve such revenue and (high) profits when developing new deposits, miners are forced to build power systems, roads, dams, and settlements. Building an infrastructure foundation. Other less risk-averse mining industries are gradually beginning to follow suit.
Today, every ounce represents a tremendous amount of hard work, extracting grams of metal from tons of rock in enormous open-pit mines. Producers are racing to efficiently extract hundredths of a percent from ores. For millions of tons of extracted rock, these hundredths translate into tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional profit per year. Achieving these percentages requires extensive scientific and technological work with ores, chemicals, and processing plants.
Unlike other countries, Russia has a good resource base of as-yet undeveloped deposits: Kyuchus, Sovinnoye, and dozens of smaller deposits. Extracting gold here is challenging due to the climate, refractory ores, and inaccessible transportation. But gold miners are moving there, and with high profitability, they are willing to take on increased risks as pioneers.