The Minister of natural resources of Russia Yury Trutnev said the Russian government would bar foreign companies from participating in large mineral deposit auctions in 2005.
The ban would mean only companies with at least 51 percent Russian ownership would be allowed to bid for oil and gas fields around the Far Eastern Sakhalin Island, the Barents Sea, as well as the giant Roman Trebs and Anatoly Titov fields in Russia's arctic.
Foreign companies also would be kept out of the auctions of Russia's largest gold deposit, the Sukhoi Log, and the East Siberian Udokan copper deposit.
Sukhoi Log is one of the largest untapped gold fields in the world, with some 22 million troy ounces of reserves. The oil and gas fields off the coast of the Pacific island of Sakhalin are among the largest in the world.
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Foreign Companies Can't Buy Russian Gold Deposits
Russian government wants domestic companies to develop the largest national deposits