Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia:

N. A. Kharitonova, Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences, NAHaritonova@fa.ru
E. N. Kharitonova, Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences
V. K. Shaydullina, Senior Lecturer, Candidate of Juridical Sciences

The article reveals the possibilities of alternative ways of attracting investments in gold mining. It has been determined that at present the most popular way of attracting funds to the project is to organize and conduct an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The paper analyzes the ICO market, with 8 gold mining companies participating in the results of 2017–Q3 2019, half of which successfully conducted ICO and implement their projects to develop the or e deposits they discovered; 3 more companies are conducting ICO now. The analysis of the completed ICO projects displays that most companies equate the placed coin (token) with the cost of 1 kg of gold. Within the study parameters, the authors also review the existing studies concerned with investment in the gold mining industry. It has been found that that at present there are no works devoted to the study of the new economic and legal phenomenon of ICO projects in the field of investing in the gold mining industry. During the research the statistics of the World Gold Council were analyzed in order to identify the countries that lead the market in gold mining. In accordance with the sample of the leading countries for gold mining, the authors review the legislation of these states, which regulates the organization and conduct of ICO by gold mining companies. As a part of this study, the legislation and economic characteristics of Australia, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and Canada are examined. The paper reveals the general trends that enable to point out the aspects that need to be taken into account when organizing ICO by such companies. For the conditions of the Russian Federation certain practical recommendations were developed aimed at establishing the regulation of the ICO as a new economic and legal phenomenon with a view to increasing the investments inflow into the gold mining industry.

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