Celtic Resources, the Irish-based minerals development company, is seeking additional investment to develop the higher-grade portion of its gold mine in the Russian far east.

At its annual general meeting yesterday, chairman Dr Oliver Waldron said Celtic had been hard hit both by economic turmoil in Russia and falling world gold prices. Gold prices had dropped by about 25 per cent in the last year and two-thirds of the world's gold mines were losing money, he said.

"I believe the principal asset of the company is substantial although, in the current situation, it is difficult to raise capital to fund further work," he said. Celtic recently secured investment to the tune of £260,000 (€330,130) from Redhaven, a British investment group, in return for a 28 per cent stake in Celtic. This will be used to fund detailed design work to implement the high-grade mining project and to raise further project finance.

An estimated £5 million-£6 million (€6.357.62 million) would be needed for the selective mining project, said managing director, Mr Sean Finlay.

Despite falling prices, the quality of the higher-grade ore was such that selective mining would still be profitable, he said.