Gold miner UGC planning 1.2 mln tpy open mine operation at Semyonovskoye gold deposit's Oseika section

CHELYABINSK. Dec 25 (Interfax) - PJSC Uzhuralzoloto Group of Companies or UGC plans to mine up to 1.2 tonnes of ore per year from an open pit at the Oseika section of the Semyonovskoye gold deposit in the Chelyabinsk region, the company said in information for public discussion.

UGC notified the Ecomonitoring Federal State Information Service about public discussion of a plan to develop the Semyonovskoye deposit on December 24. The discussion will last from January 12 to February 10 and may be followed by public hearings.

The plan states that deposit's reserves will be develop by the open-cast method at an annual rate of up to 1.2 million tonnes of ore over nine years with the first gold poured in the first year.

The ore reserves for the duration of the project are 9.75 million tonnes, including 8.76 million of commercial and 991,600 tonnes of off-balance reserves. The ore will be transported to the gold recovery plant in Plast, 8.5 kilometers away.

UGC received a 25-year license to prospect, explore and develop the field back in July 2011.

The Semyonovskoye gold deposit's commercial reserves have been approved by the State Reserves Commission and, as of January 1, 2021, amounted to C1 - 3.69 tonnes of Au and 7.6 tonnes of Ag and C2 - 3.59 tonnes of Au and 8.5 tonnes of Ag. Total C1 + C2 are 7.27 tonnes Au and 16.1 tonnes Ag.

Off-balance reserves (primary ore) are C1 - 292.9 kg Au and 0.9 tonnes Ag and C2 - 3.29 tonnes Au and 7.3 tonnes Ag. Total C1 + C2 reserves are 3.59 tonnes Au and 8.2 tonnes Ag.

The project envisages the development of all commercial reserves and some of the off-balance reserves.

UGC won an auction for the rights to the Oseika section, located in the Plast and Troitsk districts, in the summer of 2011, bidding 25.58 million rubles.

The section was explored in 1980-1984 and contains probable P1 reserves of 12,171 kg in ore-bodies between 0.1 and 10-12 meters wide graded at between 1 and 12.4 g/t for Au.

UGC is one of Russia's biggest gold miners. It has two hubs - Urals, in the Chelyabinsk region, and Siberia in the Krasnoyarsk territory and Khakassia. Konstantin Strukov was the controlling shareholder until recently, but a court ordered that his 67% stake be transferred to the state in the middle of July. Strukov sold 22% of the gold miner to Gazprombank's AAA Capital Management in 2024.