OREANDA-NEWS. December 06, 2010. Pervoye GRP, a subsidiary Polyus Gold, Russia's leading gold producer, has acquired three licenses to explore, prospect and mine gold in the Bilibinsk region of the Chukotka Autonomous District, reported the press-centre of Polyus Gold.

The license area of the Burgakhchan, Gus and Erguneisky fields which are located at the western, central and eastern parts of the Burgakhchan area covers 1,847 square kilometers.

The total price of the acquisition amounted to RUR 25.3 million. The total prognostic resources of the license areas amount to 175 tonnes of gold.

The project to explore the license areas is to be developed and approved in 2011. The company plans to complete prospecting works by 2013.

‘Despite the Chukotka region having not been extensively explored, its mineral reserves base potential is considered to be one of the highest in Russia’, said Evgueni Ivanov, CEO of Polyus Gold. ‘Polyus has been focusing on obtaining prospective licenses in the district for a long time, and now we are certain that  the utilization of the prospecting and exploration technologies we have in place will provide positive results already in the next three to five years", Evgueni Ivanov added.

OJSC Polyus Gold is Russia’s leading gold producer and one of the world’s largest gold mining companies in terms of market capitalization, mineral reserves base and output. The Company’s asset portfolio includes hard-rock and alluvial deposits in the Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Magadan and Amur Regions, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The company produced 1.3 m oz of gold in 2009.