Russia will start granting perpetual licences for miners to export gold instead of one-off rights, a decree showed on Monday, to support them in shipping metal overseas independently as demand in its regular trade chain is hit by the coronavirus.
Russian commercial banks, usually the main gold buyers from miners, have found it more difficult to export gold as the virus outbreak has grounded passenger flights.
"We have spent over a year on this process and we are happy that gold miners will now be entitled to export the metal under general licences," Sergei Kashuba, the head of Russia’s Gold Industrialists’ Union, a non-government producers’ lobby group, told Reuters.An immediate jump in gold exports by gold miners is unlikely, however, as it will take several month to tune up the process. Miners need to find buyers abroad and decide how much precious metal they can offer to them, Kashuba said.