Shareholders in gold exploration company Ovoca Gold voted to approve the sale of its 100 per cent interest in Olymp at an egm in Dublin yesterday.

Olymp, whose only asset is a mining and exploration licence for the Olcha gold-silver deposit in northeast Russia, will be sold to a subsidiary of Polymetal International, a FTSE 100 gold and silver mining group operating in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Ovoca will receive 775,000 Polymetal shares for its 100 per cent interest in Olymp in a deal worth £8.4 million (€ 10.4 million).

Speaking at the egm, Ovoca chief executive Kirill Golovanov told shareholders that the company had been looking for a strategic partner to develop the Olcha deposit for some years, but that it was seen as too remote.

The offer from Polymetal was “very good”, he said, and he called on shareholders to approve the sale, which they did, overwhelmingly.

According to Mr Golovanov, Polymetal is in a position to put the Olcha site into production because it has the infrastructure and the processing plants.

“If we were to develop it, it would cost more than $120 million,” he told shareholders, adding that it would be “very high risk” to do so.

He said that the Polymetal deal will boost the company’s financial resources.

“Right now we’re in a good position. If we had to raise finance we could do so without any dilution,” he said, but added that he believes the share price is “inadequate”.

“I don’t think the market treats us fairly,” he said.

Of future projects, such as the Stakhanovsky site in northeast Russia, he noted that he would be in a position to provide an update on production in the “middle of spring”.