Billionaire Russian Oligarch Bids to Buy Plymouth Tungsten Mine

A billionaire Russian oligarch wants to pump £25million into reopening Plymouth’s closed down tungsten mine.

Pala Investments – owned by one of the world’s richest men: Vladimir Iorich – is understood to be willing to inject the cash into the Drakelands tungsten mine, at Hemerdon, after its owner Wolf Minerals went into liquidation.

Mr.Iorich, ranked by Forbes as the 1,210th most minted person on earth in 2014, now lives in Germany and his investment fund is based in Switzerland. It is understood Pala has deposited about £14million into safekeeping ready to use at the mothballed mine. But talks appear to have hit a snag over the cost of restoring the land after its working life has finished.

It is thought a trio of banks, all among Wolf’s secured creditors, are grappling over the size of the bond.

UniCredit, ING and Caterpilar, all key creditors, want the bond reduced to £11.5million.

Industry sources have suggested at least two other parties are keen on restarting mining at Hemerdon, but it could cost up to £40million to achieve this.

There had been fears The Drakelands mine could close as early as 2016, and so when specialty metals producer Wolf Minerals (UK) Ltd finally went belly-up with a debt mountain of about £70million, it seemed like the inevitable conclusion to a doomed venture. The closure has put more than 200 jobs at risk and sent shock waves through the Plymouth economy.

Administrators Martin Jones and Ryan Eagle, of Australian firm Ferrier Hodgson, have adjourned a second meeting of creditors to allow them time to complete a sales process for the recapitalisation and restructure of the now-in-liquidation company.

• < Prev
• Next >