Petropavlovsk Plc intends to increase gold production by 32% in 2018 compared with 2015 - up to 19,7-21,7 tons due to underground ore miningonPioner and Malomyr deposits in the Amur region, according to the general director of the Petropavlovsk managing company. According to him, the drifting will begin this year onPioner and Malomyr deposits for the beginning of underground gold mining. According to the most optimistic forecasts, the production will begin in late 2017. “The project is totally new for our company, but workable.It is expected to produce additional 4-6 tons of metal per year”, - said Ermolenko in an interview to Amurskaya Pravda. In addition, the production start at the autoclave leaching complex is planned for 2018. “Free-milling ore are running low at our facilities, but hard-to-refractory ores arequite sufficient.This year, construction work resumed in the autoclave. The degree of readiness of the facility is quite high, but the most important parts still remain uncompleted, such as automation, process control electronics. These operations are performed by specialized organizations”, said General Director. As reported, at the beginning of 2016 Petropavlovsk planned to complete a full feasibility study for underground mining projects in the fields of Pioner and Malomyr by the second and third quarters of 2016. In April, Petropavlovsk has signed joint venture agreement with the company GMD Gold to complete the construction and launch of the autoclave in 2018.The autoclave will process the refractory ore from the fields of Pioner and Malomyr, as well as concentrates from facilities of GMD Gold and third parties. Annual production is planned to be 200 to 300 thousand ounces (6.2-9.3 tons) of gold at full production. As of 31stDecember2015, refractory ore reserves the fields of Pioner and Malomyr were 3.9 million ounces. Petropavlovsk Plc is among the top five Russian gold producers.Its main assets are concentrated in the Amur region, whereoperate four mining and hydrometallurgical plants- Pokrovsky Rudnik, Pioner, Malomyr and Albyn. Following the results of 2015, the company reduced its gold production by 19.3% to 504.1 thousand ounces (15.7 tons). In 2016, the company plans to produce 460-500 thousand ounces of gold.
Source: Uncommercial joint ownership "Trans-regional Association of precious metals producers"