Interfax cited Mr Anatoly Ledovskykh the head of subsurface resource use agency Rosnedra as saying that financing for geological exploration work by natural resource license holders has declined due to the financial crisis.

He said that “If the state does not provide the necessary support, the reduction could have a negative impact in that area. License holders are already reducing financing for geological exploration. We are concerned about that on behalf of geology and geologists.”

He added that “The reduction could lead to staff reductions at geological services bring a slowdown in reserve replacement. We just got to an acceptable level of operations, and we no longer have a margin for error, including for administrative errors."