Top mining losers impacted by Russian sanctions

MOSCOW (Feb 25)  Russia is a heavyweight in the platinum group metals sector, noted Exploration Insights' editor and analyst, Joe Mazumdar.

Mazumdar spoke to Kitco on Thursday.

While the oil and gas sector "takes front stage" in the resource space, the country has a major share of global output of some metals, too.

"The biggest impact would be palladium. Russia contributes about 35% of output from the Norilsk operations. You also got potash, coal and a bit of platinum," said Mazumdar, who noted that publicly-traded Norilsk traded down about 40% before recovering.

Mazumdar said Kinross Gold has operations in Siberia. The company's Kupol Mine contributed 511,000 Au eq. oz. in 2020, nearly a quarter the miner's total output.

"[Kinross] is only down 3%. That may be mitigated by their growth asset they acquired in Canada, Great Bear Resources," said Mazumdar.

KITCO