Advised China National Gold Group on the acquisition of shares and creation of a joint venture for the development of Klyuchevskoye gold field in Russia

ALRUD Law Firm advised China National Gold Group on the acquisition of a majority stake, and the creation of a joint venture, for the development of Klyuchevskoye gold ore field in Russia. The transaction was completed in 2018.

China National Gold Group Corporation (CNGG) is a leading Chinese-government-owned gold-mining corporation, engaged in mining and processing of gold, silver, copper and molybdenum.

ALRUD team was a counsel on Russian Law, conducted due-diligence of the acquired group of companies and provided support on transaction structuring, advised on issues with FAS (Federal Antimonopoly Service) and FDI regulations, assisted with SPA (share purchase agreement) and SHA (shareholder agreement), including provisions related to further project financing. Further, ALRUD advised the client on the issues of subsoil use and registration of the new composition of the licensed areas. During the transaction, with the support of ALRUD, an inter-government agreement between Russia and China was approved, signed and also ratified by each party. The project also envisages appraisal, mastering and introduction in Russia of new heap leaching technologies, increasing the gold extraction ratio and quality of the end product.

ALRUD experts, working on the project under the leadership and supervision of Partner Andrey Zharskiy (Partner and Head of the Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Industry Group), comprised Counsel Oleg Ezhov, Senior Associate Timur Akhundov, Associate Kristina Akalovich, Senior Attorney Artem Sergey and Attorney Daria Degtyareva.

China Business Law Journal recognized this project to be «transaction of the year» for 2018.