The Group was founded by Peter Hambro and Pavel Maslovskiy in 1994 as an Anglo-Russian venture to develop a highly-prospective, under-developed gold project in the Amur region, Russian far east.

[7] In October 2010, the company floated its non-precious metals division (the assets previously held by Aricom plc) on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong as IRC Ltd.[8] In 2017, founder Peter Hambro stepped down as chairman of the company and Pavel Maslovskiy resigned after pressure from a group of shareholders led by Viktor Vekselberg.

[9] However, following a vote taken at the company’s annual general meeting on 29 June 2018, it was announced that Pavel Maslovskiy would return to the board of Petropavlovsk along with Sir Roderic Lyne and Robert Jenkins.

[10][11] In August 2020, following June boardroom changes which were not supported by Prosperity Capital Management,[12] Petropavlovsk announced the appointment of an interim chief executive.

[13] The immediate priority of the board of directors of Petropavlovsk PLC would be to ensure the on-going stability of operations[14] and to strengthen governance of the company following a boardroom tussle.

[15] Doubts about the competence and independence of an interim chief executive, Maksim Meshcheriakov, were voiced by the Pokrovskiy Mine labor union.

In their letter they wrote that he was not independent, did not have the relevant mining experience of more than 17 years, had been involved in questionable transactions and may still be regarded as a politically exposed person.

Acquired in 2003 as a greenfield site, Malomir was commissioned on target in 2010 and the plant was expanded in July 2010, despite the project's remote location in the north-east Amur region.