MOSCOW: Russian gold production rose 18.5% year-on-year in the first eight months of2009, mainly due to the launch of some large projects in the far east, the Russian Gold Industrialist' Union, said yesterday.
  The Union, the industry lobby, said in astatement gold output by the world's No.5 miner of the yellow metal totalled 126.42 tonnes in January-August compared to 106.69 tonnes in the same period a year ago.
  It said gold outut from mines accounted for most of the 1.39 tonne rise in August from August 2008, while output from gravel deposits, termed placers, was practically the same as a year ago.
  Production of gold from mines and placers in the first eight months of 2009 rose 18.4% year-on-year to 111.28 tonnes, the Union said.
  Output achieved by refining gold from scrap rose 1.9% to 4.74 tonnes and gold produced as a by-product of other metals tose 29.3% to 10.40 tonnes.
  Russia produced about