Polyus launches gold extraction plant at Blagodatnoye field
MOSCOW. Jul 12 (Interfax) - OJSC Polyus Gold has put a gold extraction plant at the Blagodatnoye field in the Krasnoyarsk Territory into operation, the company said in a statement.
The plant's design capacity comes to 6 million tonnes of ore a year. Gold output on average will reach 12 tonnes a year. Total capex in the project came to $450 million.
"The launch of the new plant not only carries out Polyus' production plans but also facilitates a substantial increase in output. The plant at the Blagodatnoye field will produce 3.2 tonnes of precious metals this year," Polyus' general director, Yevgeny Ivanov, was quoted as saying in the statement.
This plant is the largest of its type in Russia. Construction took 30 months.
The Blagodatnoye field covers 4.65 square kilometers and is 20 kilometers north of Polyus' Olympiad field. Blagodatnoye's JORC (P&P) reserves come to 306,007 tonnes with gold content at 2.27 grams per tonne.
Polyus Gold produced over 133 tonnes of gold in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 2005-2009.