Polyus Gold to start building Natalka plant in H2 2011
VLADIVOSTOK. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Polyus Gold plans to start building a recovery plant at the big Natalka gold deposit in the Magadan region in H1 2011, the Magadan regional administration said in a press release.
"The company's main task this year is to complete preparations for the construction in the first and second quarters, and involve at the initial stage as many local contractors as possible and, from the second half, to start construction and installation. We need to close 2011 with work well under way" at the recovery plant and infrastructure, including warehouses, the mining village, boiler plant and other facilities, the region's governor, Nikolai Dudov, was quoted as saying at a meeting with Vyacheslav Sokolov, the director of Polyus Gold subsidiary Rudnik im. Matrosova, which is handling the project to develop Natalka, one of the world's biggest known gold fields.
Sokolov said at the meeting that exploration was being stepped up - 35,000 meters of drilling is planned for this year, compared with 12,000 meters in 2009.
Polyus Gold's directors approved the decision to build the mine and recovery plant at Natalka in December 2010.
Completion of the first stage of construction is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2013. Full processing capacity of 10 million tonnes of ore a year will be achieved in 2014, with gold production projected to equal 18.2 tonnes that year. Investment in the first stage of construction will total 31.5 billion rubles.
The launch of the mining complex at the Natalka deposit will be completed in three stages: 10 million tonnes processing capacity per year in 2014; 20 million tonnes in 2016; and 40 million tonnes in 2020. "At a processing capacity of 40 MTPA, gold production will amount to approximately 50 tonnes per year.
The board of directors has allotted 1 billion rubles for pre-mining grade control drilling at the Natalka deposit in 2010-2012.
Natalka, one of the biggest gold deposits in the world, has proved and probable reserves totaling 40.8 million oz of gold (1,270 tonnes).
