OREANDA-NEWS.  September 10, 2012. Polymetal International plc (LSE: POLY) (together with its subsidiaries, including JSC “Polymetal” – “Polymetal”, the “Company”, or the “Group”) is pleased to announce the results of its independent resource assessment for the Tamunier project, reported the press-centre of Polymetal.

Highlights
Snowden Mining Industry Consultants Inc. (“Snowden”) has estimated a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource for the company’s Tamunier project  of 50Mt at 1.2 g/t gold

Further substantial exploration potential has been identified with ongoing exploration seeking to expand and upgrade the resource estimate

Polymetal will consider strategic options in relation to the project, including a JV with an exploration company

“I am pleased with the results of our exploration work at Tamunier” said Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal. “The size of the deposit is quite substantial. However, the Tamunier project does not fit with our strategy of concentrating on higher-grade assets and we will, therefore, consider a sale or partnership to advance the development of the asset”.

Location and history
Tamunier, together with the adjacent Vasilyevsky license (combined license area of 53 km2) is located in Sverdlovsk region of Russia, 182 km north from Voro, an operating mine owned by Polymetal, and 67 km from the closest large town of Ivdel (population 18 thousand).  Mineralization was discovered at Tamunier in the 1960s during an exploration campaign targeted at VMS base-metal mineralization. Polymetal acquired mining and exploration subsoil rights (licenses) from the state for Tamunier in 2007 for USD 536,000 and for USD 161,000 for Vasilyevsky in 2011.

Tamunier is located in a historical mining area with good infrastructure. The project is accessible by year-round gravel road. The nearest paved road is 5 km away, the 110-kV power line is 18 km away, and the nearest railway spur is 41 km away, all to the south.

Geology and mineralisation
The Tamunier mineralization is characterized by zones of disseminated sulfide (mostly pyrite) and containing gold. The mineralization is within an extensively altered volcanoclastic Devonian sequence intersected by several north-south traced faults.

Following geophysical and geochemical studies and the drilling of 155 prospecting holes, Polymetal drilled 129 exploration diamond holes and these are the basis of the 2012 Mineral Resource estimate. The new holes are up to 200 m depth from the surface with 100 m x 50 m and 50 m x 25 m drill patterns. This totals to 29,200 m of core drilling and 28,977 samples including 4,000 assays completed.

Structures hosting the mineralization consist of mineral bearing metasomatites that have been traced by drillholes for 3 km along strike and for 350 m to 400 m down-dip. The mineralized zone is from 300 m to 700 m thick with boundaries along strike and down-dip that have not been defined. The mineralization does not have clear geological boundaries and outlines can only be determined on the basis of sampling.

Metallurgy
Polymetal Engineering has performed testwork on a suite of representative samples derived from mineralized drill cores from Tamunier, and based on the results of the testwork has  the following findings:

Direct cyanidation yields low recovery of 57.9% for gold using a sample grind at P80 of -0.074 mm

Heap leaching is not feasible

Most gold can be dissolved in cyanide after fine grinding to P80 at -0.028 mm suggesting the amenability of moderate ultrafine grinding (UFG) metallurgy cyanidation techniques

Concentration (gravity-flotation) is feasible to produce a gold-pyrite concentrate grading 16 g/t Au to 20 g/t Au at an overall recovery of 83% gold to concentrate and 5% mass yield

Testwork on UFG of concentrates and whole ore is ongoing