Highland Gold/Barrick: golden goal - FT.com Roman Abramovich is said to have held a "crisis meeting" with players and manager at his underperforming Chelsea football club after its latest defeat on Saturday. No wonder the Russian billionaire's thoughts are turning to something that might have more long-term inherent worth - gold. Barrick Gold, the Canadian miner, is to sell its 20 per cent stake in Highland Gold, the London-listed, Russia-focused gold miner in which Mr Abramovich has a 32 per cent stake. There is talk that the tycoon will buy Barrick's shares. Why would he want to? Mr Abramovich and Barrick have done business before. He acquired some of his current Highland Gold stake in 2007 when the Canadian group was reducing its ownership from 34 per cent to 20 per cent after deciding that Russia was not a core market. The stake is a bagatelle for both parties - it is worth a shade over £100m at Monday's trading level, and Highland Gold is a tiny producer: just 184,000 ounces in 2011, compared with an expected 7.5m or more at Barrick, the world's biggest gold miner by output, which reports 2011 numbers on Thursday. There is logic to a purchase of part or all of the stake by Millhouse, Mr Abramovich's investment vehicle. It would remove the overhang from Highland Gold's shares, which have fallen by 7 per cent since the end of last week. But there are some good reasons why Mr Abramovich might not buy the stake. Selling the shares more widely would increase the free float of Aim-listed Highland Gold to about 60 per cent - a feather in its cap for corporate governance. Upping his stake may trigger a mandatory buy-out of minorities. And Millhouse says it has all the stake it needs to extract value from its investment. So Mr Abramovich hardly needs to spend another £100m to get what he wants at Highland Gold. If only things were that simple at Chelsea.