Gold miner Seligdar edges output up 0.2% in 2014
MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) - Seligdar edged gold production up 0.2% in 2014 to 3.676 tonnes (118,190 oz).
"Results for last year are positive. We mined 3.21 tonnes of a planned 3.676 tonnes, overshooting our target by 14.5%," the holding company's general director, Sergei Tatarinov, told the Yakutia newspaper.
The company sold its last gold of the season on December 21 and it won't have any more to sell until May.
Seligdar produced 3.67 tonnes or 117,990 oz of gold in 2013.
The company aims to be producing 8.5 tonnes or more than 273,000 oz per year by 2020. It intends to commission a recovery plant at the Ryabinovoye field in 2016.
"We're already working there, processing a small amount of ore. This is a large field with 30-40 tonnes and a recovery rate of up to 90% with cyanide technology. The field consists of three sections. Its launch will enable us to switch to all-year production, which will reduce our exposure to market fluctuations and seasonal factors. The plant should recover an annual 2 tonnes of gold from 1 million tonnes of ore, which ought to stabilize our production," Tatarinov said.
Seligdar trades on the Moscow Exchange . The company has said its shareholders are the Russkiye Fondy investment group with 40%, management with 30% and Russian and foreign portfolio investors with 30% also.
The Seligdar group was created in 2008 from a cooperative of gold prospectors of the same name and includes 13 enterprises in Yakutia, Altai territory, Buryatia, Orenburg region and Khabarovsk territory. The group holds licensed to 28 alluvial and hardrock gold deposits, 13 of which are under production, and is among Russia's 15 largest gold mining companies by output. Consolidated gold production totaled 3.67 tonnes, or 118,000 ounces, in 2013.