Trans-Siberian Gold confident in face of coronavirus

Russian gold producer Trans-Siberian Gold updated the market on its operations and approach on Friday, amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The AIM-traded company said that as a significant employer in the Kamchatka region, the health and wellbeing of its employees remained its priority, explaining that it was monitoring the development of the crisis and its potential impact on its people and operations.

It said it had risk mitigation policies in place, which were aimed at communicating the best precautionary measures to staff, to prevent the spread of the virus.

“The company's supply chains remain unaffected and our operations continue to run as normal,” the board said.

“Our Moscow office remains open, although processes are in place to ensure employees are able to work from home if needed.

“We continue to follow the latest government advice in all our jurisdictions with regard to the current running of our operations.”

Current events had resulted in “material changes” to commodity prices and foreign exchange rates, which were expected to impact positively on the group’s overall profitability.

The company said its dollar-denominated revenue from gold sales remained strong in a supportive gold price environment.

It added that the recent oil price decline was expected to considerably reduce its energy costs, and the connected devaluation of the Russian rouble was equally anticipated to contribute to overall cost improvement, as the majority of its operational costs were rouble-denominated.

“The group is progressing well with its previously stated priorities for 2020,” it added.

“Underground and surface drilling campaigns at the Main and East zones of the Asacha Gold Mine are underway, with further updates to follow in due course.

“The scoping study for the Rodnikova Gold Deposit remains on track for the second quarter.” Trans-Siberian said there were no changes to its production or dividend guidance, and added that it expected to report production results from the Asacha Gold Mine for the first quarter in April.

At 1325 GMT, shares in Trans-Siberian Gold were up 8% at 48.6p.