Vladimir Iorikh

Vladimir Iorikh or Vladimir Iorich or Vladimir Yorikh or Vladimir Yorich or Vladimir Jorikh or Vladimir Jorich (born 1958, Novokuznetsk, Soviet Union) is a Russian steel tycoon, president of the Swiss firm Conares Holding, which he formed in 1995, and founded the private equity and a venture capital Zug, Switzerland, based firm, Pala Investments, which was registered at St Helier in Jersey in 2006, with Jan Castro as the Managing Director of Pala Investments AG, which is the exclusive advisor to Pala in 2008. He claims that he is a German-Swiss tycoon who has nothing to do with Russia but controls uranium mining in the United States. He made much of his initial fortune during the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Mechel From 1995 to 2004, he was CEO and, along with Igor Zyuzin, were equal shareholders holding a 42% stake in Mechel. (When the Mechel Steel Group was formed in 2003, it included the Mechel Metallurgical Plant, Korshunov GOK, Yuzhuralnickel, Southern Kuzbass Coal Holding, as well as a number of metallurgical plants in Russia and abroad.)

Burundi In early April 2015, Pala invested in Rainbow Rare Earths Ltd., which gained its mining license in March 2015 for 25 years with a renewal thereafter, to mine rare earth elements in Western Burundi at Gakara. The site at Gakara, which is located south-southeast of Bujumbura, is the only known rare earth elements mine in Africa. Gakara has a 52-56% TREO of high-value rare earth concentrate and has low levels of radioactivity with Neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) representing approximately 88% of the total while only containing 19.5% of the mass.

Western Australia As of August 2017, Pala provided a large amount of financing to the Australian mining company Altura Mining Limited's Pilgangoora Lithium Project ('Altura Project'), which is owned by the firm Pilbara Minerals Limited, to develop a lithium-tantalum mine at Pilgangoora in Pilbara, Western Australia, which is south of Port Hedland, Western Australia, and is from Pilbara Minerals’ flagship Tabba Tabba Tantalum Project. The mine was placed on care and maintenance at the end of 2024 due to low lithium price.

Papua New Guinea In 2019, his firm Pala gained control of Cobalt 27 and renamed it Nickel 28 Capital Corporation. In 2019, Cobalt 27 owned an 8.56% stake in the joint venture at Ramu on the north coast of Papua New Guinea near Madang.

Personal life As of 2009, Iorikh holds both Russian and German citizenship and lives in Switzerland.