OREANDA-NEWS. OJSC Polyus Gold, Russia’s leading gold producer, today announced that its subsidiary OJSC Aldanzoloto GRK acquired a license on exploration and mining at Pinigin deposit in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

According to the press service of Polyus Gold, the acquired license area is 6.87 square km. The price of the acquisition amounted to 25.2 million rubles (US$0.95 million).

Pinigin deposit is located in the South-Yakutsk mining area, between local towns Nerungri and Aldan. The deposit was discovered following exploration works carried out in 2000- 2003. As of today the deposit’s reserves (Russian classification) both for open pit and underground mining are listed on the balance of the Republic and amount to 17.7 tonnes (C2 category); P1 and P2 resources amount to 3.4 tonnes and 23 tonnes respectively.

In 2007-2010 Polyus is planning to carry out exploration works at the deposit, which will require some 320 million rubles (about US$11.6 million) of investments.

According to Polyus Gold CEO Evgueni Ivanov, “the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), being one of the richest gold mining regions of Russia, is one of the natural expansion areas for Polyus Gold, and we aim to increase our mineral resources base there through acquisition of new exploration licenses. The existing production facilities of Kuranakh mine in Aldan will serve a base for exploration works as well as for further mining and processing of the discovered ores”.