Seligdar PJSC, one of the leading gold producers in Russia, has announced that its majority held subsidiary White Gold LLC has won an auction for a licence to develop the largest gold deposit in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) – which is known as Kyuchus. White Gold is a joint venture between Seligdar Polymetallic Holding and RT-Business Development LLC, oart of the structure of the Russian Technologies State Corporation. The cost of the license at the end of the auction amounted to 7.735 billion rubles or about $108 million.
The Kyuchus gold deposit is one of the largest in Russia and the second largest in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It is located beyond the Arctic Circle in two regions of the republic: Ust-Yansky and Verkhoyansky. The area of the plot is 8.35 km2. Gold reserves (using Russian classification) for open pit mining are C1 – 70.919 t and C2 – 38.416 t; then for underground mining C2 – 65.927 t. It also has sizeable silver reserves.
In the area, there is no existing energy infrastructure sufficient for the implementation of such a large mining project, therefore, the company has also committed itself, no later than June 2028, to start using at least 35 MW of nuclear electricity, which will be supplied by a a new low-power modular nuclear power plant in the Yakutia Republic. The second prerequisite that was included in the auction was that the level of production must be at least 10 t of gold per year from the date of reaching the designed capacity.
“The Kyuchus deposit is a rather complex one technically, but very significant for Yakutia. I am sure that with our partners we will be able to find a technical solution, and build an enterprise that will become one of the brands of the Republic,” said Konstantin Beirit, President and Member of the Board of Directors of Seligdar PJSC.
PJSC Seligdar is one of the largest gold mining enterprises in the Russian Federation and the only producer of domestic tin ore. In terms of tin reserves, it is one of the five largest companies in the world. It mines gold in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Altai, Buryatia, and mines tin in the Khabarovsk Territory. In 2020, the Seligdar holding companies produced 7 t of gold and 2,500 t of tin in concentrate.
OOO White Gold is a joint venture of OOO Gold Assets Management, which is part of Seligdar Polymetallic Holding (holds 67.7% of the company) and RT-Business Development OOO, which is part of the Russian Technologies State Corporation (holds 32.3% of the company). The company was incorporated in July 2021.
Recently, at the MINEX Russia 2021 which took place in Moscow from October 5-7, PJSC Seligdar also won a competition for innovative technologies for the mining and metallurgical industry with a project to create what it describes as “the world’s first thermal ore treatment unit.” It adds: “The uniqueness of the project is that the installation allows you to control the temperature distribution along the length and carry out thermal treatment of refractory ores in accordance with the specified technological parameters. This makes it possible to increase gold recovery during cyanidation from 20-30% to 90%. The unit has proven to be cost effective compared to other technologies for recovering gold from refractory and refractory sulphide ores.”
