#34 Vasily Anisimov
Another one of Russia’s Metalloinvest billionaires, Anisimov has a net worth of $3.4 billion as estimated by Forbes placing him at 330 in the world and number 30 in Russia.
Anisimov sold off of his share of Metalloinvest after being sued by fellow billionaire Boris Berezovsky (now exiled in London after falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin) for $600 million.
Forbes reports the trial continues and in 2000, Anisimov mysteriously “sold all his holdings in Russia and laid low for four years. In 2004, he made a comeback as co-owner of Metalloinvest with fellow billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Andrei Skoch.”
While Anisimov, 60, keeps a low profile and unlike his fellow Russian billionaires prefers New York over London when not in Moscow, his daughter Anna is a well known Manhattan socialite and property owner.
She is an ex-model and has been dubbed Russia’s answer to Paris Hilton. Tragically in 2000 Anisimov’s only child from a previous marriage and her husband were murdered in Russia.
#35 Alexander Nesis
Nesis is worth $3.1 billion and like his billionaire Russian buddies Suleiman Kerimov, Filaret Galchev, Alexander Nesis and Zelimkhan Mutsoev and Anatoly Skurov, owes his wealth to potash and specifically the blockbuster merger of Uralkali and Silvinit last year that created a true rival to Canada’s Potashcorp.
Forbes reports “Nesis started out in the 1990s reinvesting profits from Central Asian uranium mining into other metals and shipbuilding. He created miner Polymetal, then sold the company to Kerimov in 2005. Three years later, Nesis bought back a stake at a rock-bottom price in the heat of the financial crisis; Nesis now owns 19%.”
#36 Igor Zyuzin
At $3.1 billion Zyuzin‘s fortune does not even grant him a spot among Russia’s top 30 billionaires. His Mechel Group is the country’s largest producing of coking coal and Zyuzin is readying the group’s mining division for a separate listing.
Zyuzin and fellow billionaire Vladimir Iorich, now a German citizen, struck out together in 1995 and in 2001 “the partners bought a controlling stake in Chelyabinsk Metals Factory, which formed the basis of the Mechel Group, now consisting of more than 20 plants and coals mines around the world.” The company listed in New York in 2004 and has also been buying up US coal mines. The 51-year old is married with two children.
#37 Patokh Chodiev, #38 Alijan Ibragimov, #39 Alexander Machkevich
The threesome is worth a combined $8.4 billion split equally thanks to Kazakh’s vast copper and gold resources. Chodiev built Eurasian Natural Resources with longtime pals Machkevich and Ibragimov and continues to expand the business. The company bought First Quantum Minerals’ assets in the Democratric Republic of Congo for $1.25 billion in March after the Canadian copper company got caught up in a dispute with the Central African country’s state-owned mining company.
While Chodiev,59, runs his empire from Almaty, Kazakhstan, he was born in Uzbekistan, spent a lot of time in Japan and is a Belgian citizen. Ibragimov, 58, is a native of Kyrgyzstan and according to Forbes is a devout Muslim with 6 sons. Machkevich, 58, is an Israeli citizen and Forbes says apart from helping to run the minerals company he’s focusing on launching a Jewish version of Al-Jazeera, the Arab and English news channel.
#40 Daniel Mate and #41 Aristotelis Mistakidis
Forbes pegs the two Glencore employees wealth at $2.8 billion each, meaning across industries the pair don’t break into the 400 richest in the world club. Mate, 48, is a Spaniard and joined the Swiss-based trading and commodities behemoth in 1988 when controversial founder and fugitive pardoned by US president Bill Clinton before leaving office, Marc Rich, was still at the helm.
Mate and Mistakidis, a Greek citizen and the country’s wealthiest individual, who joined the company shortly before the management buyout and name-change, are co-directors of the zinc, copper and lead divisions of Glencore. The company dominates the production and trade of the metals worldwide.
#42 – #87 the last of the mining billionaires Next >>>
