On August 4, the State Technical Commission endorsed a new list of topics classified as secret, which lacked any reference to the total stock of major gold-fields. An act on introduction of a new list of information on the total stock of major gold-bearing deposits is now in the making. The MNR's press-secretary Rinat Gizatulin has confirmed this news, reporting that data on platinum group metals and precious stones is not entitled to exposure. He said the act had been actually accomplished but not yet signed.
Gold is now being extracted in 28 regions of Russia, this activity involving about 700 legal entities of different forms of ownership (joint-stock companies, gold-diggers co-ops, state-run companies and private firms), all acting as independent minerals-users. The total personnel involved in the industry is about 350,000.
Russia's leading gold-extracting regions are the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Chukot autonomous district, Amur, Irkutsk and Magadan regions.
Russia cedes only to South Africa and the U.S. as to its prospected gold reserves and disposes of adequate resources for increasing its gold extraction. The share of gold-bearing ores in Russia amounts to 80 percent and auriferous gravel to 20 percent while 85 percent of all the gold stock is extracted at placers and merely 15 percent at ore fields.
