Uzhuralzoloto could mine 47% more gold in 2013
CHELYABINSK. March 18 (Interfax) - The Uzhuralzoloto Group of Companies (UGC), a gold miner based in the Chelyabinsk region, aims to boost gold production 47% this year to 10 tonnes in 2013, Roman Berger, managing director, told Interfax.
Berger said gold production grew 30% last year to 6.8 tonnes.
Most of last year's growth occurred at mines in the Urals. The company produced 5 tonnes of gold in the Chelyabinsk region last year and is targeting 6 tonnes there in 2013.
"We plan to be producing up to 10 tonnes of gold year in the Urals alone by 2017," Berger said.
The company plans to launch a gold recovery plant at the Bereznyakovskoye deposit with capacity of 450,000 tonnes of ore per year using POX technology. The launch of the plant "will give UGC an annual increase of 1.5-2 tonnes of gold processing ore with gold content of 4-6 grams per tonne," Strukov said.
UGC also plans to complete construction and installation work this year at a gold recovery plant at the Svetlinskoye deposit, construction of which began in September 2012. The initial construction work has been done and most of the equipment has been purchased. This plant will be able to process 8 million tonnes of ore per year.
The company also said that UGC's five-year development plan sees gold production at its Ural assets growing to 12 tonnes per year.
OJSC Uzhuralzoloto is the flagship enterprise of the Uzhuralzoloto Group of Companies (UGC), based in the Chelyabinsk region. UGC was created in summer 2007 with the assets of CJSC Uzhuralzoloto. UGOLD Limited owns 99.995% of UGC, and Konstantin Strukov, the UGC board chairman, owns 99.98% of UGOLD Limited.
The group's assets include Kochkarskoye, the Svetlinskoye, Bereznyakovskoye, South Kurosan and West Kurosan fields in the Chelyabinsk region, the Kommunarovsky Rudnik mine in Khakasia, Darasunsky Rudnik in the Chita region and Drazhny in the Krasnoyarsk territory.
