Roman Abramovich, the oligarch who is based in the West, took another knock yesterday when Highland Gold, the Russian goldmining business in which he has a large stake, was forced to delay the development of two new projects.

The company, which is Russia’s fifth-biggest goldminer, is delaying commissioning a deposit in Novoshirokinskoye, in southeast Russia, and a mine in Mayskoye, in the remote northeastern region of Chukotka, where Mr Abramovich is governor.

The postponements come after Highland Gold, which is listed on London’s AIM market, began a review of its operations in September seeking to conserve cash. The company, like most other miners and commodity producers, has been hit by the double whammy of falling prices and a shortage of credit.

Duncan Baxter, Highland Gold’s chairman, said: “The world economic climate has changed dramatically since our positive interim results reported in September. This has led the board and management to take aggressive action to protect the strength of our balance sheet. Slowing the development process of our projects is a logical decision in these circumstances.”

Mr Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, has seen his investment in Highland Gold sink rapidly since he bought a 4 per cent holding a year ago. His investment vehicle Millhouse paid $400 million, or 151p a share. Yesterday the shares, which reached a peak in January of 248p, closed at 39½p, leaving Mr Abramovich’s holding worth only $104 million.

Highland Gold had completed much of the construction work at Novoshirokinskoye with Kazzinc, the Kazakh zinc producer that is its partner for the operation, and was due to begin production in October next year. Now the mine will be placed in care and maintenance. Highland Gold said that both partners had agreed a postponement after the recent fall in world metal prices.

In Chukotka, construction on the Mayskoye mine will be virtually halted until there is an improvement in “economic conditions and financing opportunities”. Only very limited preproduction development work will be carried out next year.

Highland Gold said that despite the development delays it remained on course to reach its production goal for this year of 155,000 to 165,000 ounces of gold.

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