Petropavlovsk to invest $400 mln in Pokrovsky project
MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) - Gold mining company Petropavlovsk plans to invest $400 million in a project to process refractory ore at the Pokrovsky mine using autoclave leaching technology, Peter Hambro, the company's board chairman and one of its founders, said in an interview with the RT television channel.
There is a very important new project to process refractory ore through autoclave leaching, he said. Russia does not have anything like it and the project will be carried out at the Pokrovsky mine. The plant will open in 2014. It is part of the company's investment program in Russia, Hambro said. Considering the infrastructure and different additional spending it may cost $350 million to $400 million, he said.
The company plans to produce at least 680,000 ounces of gold in 2012 but this might be raised, Hambro said. This figure does not include 2 new projects that are going to be launched during the year, he said.
Petropavlovsk decided to speed up the launch of a second resin in pulp (RIP) line at the Albyn mine for 1.8 million tonnes of ore per year to the third quarter of 2012 (instead of 2014) thanks to the mine's increases resources and resource base. For the same reason it has decided to launch the fourth phase of the Pioneer mine, to process 2 million tonnes of non-refractory ore, in the third quarter of 2012.
Petropavlovsk was established in April 2009 through the merger of Peter Hambro and Aircom (which was spun out of Peter Hambro in 2003). The alliance in October 2010 once again withdrew iron ore assets into a new company - IRC Limited, which is traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Petropavlovsk owns the controlling stake). Petropavlovsk shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange.
Petropavlovsk operates at gold ore deposits in Russia's Amur region (Pokrovsky, Pioneer and Malomyr) and its fourth project Albyn was launched at the end of 2011. The alliance also owns several licenses for gold deposits in Krasnoyarsk territory and other Russian regions. IRC iron ore assets are located in Amur and the Jewish Autonomous Region.