Polymetal agrees boundaries of POX hub site in Kazakhstan, understanding on core equipment reached

MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - Polymetal has agreed on the boundaries of the site for a pressure oxidation or POX hub in Kazakhstan, with negotiations on the delivery of the autoclave itself expected in June, the gold and silver miner's CEO Vitaly Nesis said.

"I personally visited the site in Pavlodar a month ago with the project team. The boundaries of the land plots that the free economic zone is ready to lease have already been fully agreed upon, and there is an understanding on the main technological equipment. In June, negotiations will be held on the transportation of the autoclave, the hub's core, to the site. This is a fairly large and heavy unit weighing more than a thousand tonnes. It will be ready for shipment from Belgium in the third quarter, and its arrival in Pavlodar will be the project's first significant milestone," Nesis said in an interview with the Kazakh publication Kursiv.

Polymetal had planned to build what will be its third POX hub in Sovietskaya Gavan in Russia's Khabarovsk territory, but decided in 2022 to think about moving it to Kazakhstan's Pavlodar region, around 500 km from its Kyzyl field. The new hub will process concentrate from Kyzyl as well as third-party concentrate.

Project capex has been estimated at $730 million and capacity around 250,000-300,000 tonnes of concentrate per year. The formal adoption of an investment decision has not yet been reported.

Polymetal is Russia's biggest silver miner and one of the biggest gold miners. It has operations in Russia's Magadan and Sverdlovsk regions, the Khabarovsk Territory, Yakutia, Chukotka, and in Kazakhstan. Polymetal's largest shareholder is ICT Group owned by Alexander Nesis and associates with around 24%