teut, i know that's the company line but i dont believe it.

from what i see, the corruption factor leads me to believe that the military, governor, russians and other ven officials have been milking this illegal cow for years....most reports show 60% of domestic gold production comes from "artisan miners"..the gold had to enter the system at some point to claim that...also, the illegals dont process the gold for the most part, that happens at the the state/rusoro/minerven level.

personally, i think there are a lot of guys that have been buying gold cheaper than it can be mined legally.

hopefully, that is coming to a halt.