In 2018, Nordgold’s Holbinsky mine has gained an impressive new array of mining stock. The mine has already received two new Sandvik TH430 trucks, one Sandvik LH410 loader and a Normet Charmec MF605 explosives charging vehicle. The mine will now add one Sandvik DD321 drill rig by the end of the year. The mine will continue to explore deeper underground horizons to reach higher grade ore.

The Holbinsky mine (also called Zun-Holba) is located in the Oka region of the Republic of Buryatia in Russia, approximately 315 km from the village of Kultuk, which is on the Trans-Siberian railway, and 400 km from the city of Irkutsk. It is also accessible by an all-season road. Production began in 1986. This mine and another mine Irokinda were acquired by Nordgold in late 2008 as part of the controlling interest in High River Gold. Nordgold holds a 90.6% voting interest in Buryatzoloto.

The Irokinda and Holbinsky mines are both relatively mature underground operations. Both contain a processing plants, each with crushing, grinding, gravity and flotation circuits. The Holbinsky plant also contains a CIL circuit and related facilities. For processing, there are two crushing stages and two grinding stages using ball mills, followed by gravity separation, which produces concentrates for both the gravity and flotation circuits. The gravity circuit is used to recover free gold, after which smelting produces dore bars. Flotation is used to recover finer gold particles into a flotation concentrate.