Polyus acquires Kuduskita area in Irkutsk region for 72 mln rubles

MOSCOW. Aug 6 (Interfax) - Polyus Group , through its subsidiary Polyus Verninskoye, has won an auction for the gold-bearing Kuduskita area in the Bodaibo district of the Irkutsk region.

According to auction materials, Polyus bid 72.2 million rubles for the license, with the starting price set at 65.7 million rubles. The auction also saw participation from Ugakhan, a company belonging to Vysochaishy Group.

The projected resources of the Kuduskita area are estimated at 16.3 tonnes of gold (P1 category) with an average grade of 1.3 grams per tonne, and 2.8 tonnes (P2 category) with a grade of 1.14 g/t.

Polyus is Russia's largest gold mining company. It operates deposits in Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk and Magadan regions, as well as in Yakutia.