OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2014. JSC Khiagda (managed by the Uranium Holding ARMZ/Atomredmetzoloto, the mining division of ROSATOM) has started preparing for development of Istochnoye and Vershinnoye natural uranium deposits in Bauntovsky Region of the Republic of Buryatia.

“We will start from mining Istochnoye deposit, which is one of the closest to the main process building and most prepared. It one of the best in terms of uranium content in Khiagdinskoye Ore Field,” JSC Khiagda CEO Alexei Dementiev noted.

The exploration operations and engineering surveys have been completed, and the mining project has been prepared for the deposit. The uranium resources were approved by the Buryat branch of the Federal Budgetary Establishment – State Commission for Mineral resources and amount to 2,055 tons. Now, the company is preparing for building access roads, electricity transmission lines (ETL), local sorbtion systems (LSS), infrastructure facilities and for drilling. A total of 5,000 wells should be drilled at Istochnoye deposit, of which 127 wells before the end of 2015. The productive solution will be processed at the local sorbtion system and the saturated sorbet will be transported to the company’s main process building for uranium recovery. Mining operations at the deposit will start in 2016.

“In parallel, we are getting ready to mine Vershinnoye deposit, which approved resources amount to 4,577 tons of uranium. This is a very attractive deposit with resources of good quality. Besides, it is possible that its mineral resources may grow, so in the mid-term we plan to additionally survey the deposit,” Alexei Dementiev said.

Mining of Vershinnoye deposit will start in 2017 and is intended for more than 20 years. At the present time, the engineering surveys for the project purposes are carried out. Next year, 92 production wells totaling 19,500 running meters will be made. The drilling will continue in 2016–2017 along with building of roads, ETL, LSS and other infrastructural facilities.

Commissioning of the main process building and sulfuric acid plant will allow JSC Khiagda increasing end product output. In future, it is planned to develop other known deposits of Khiagdinskoye Field to ensure long-term sustainable domestic uranium supplies to the nuclear industry.

According to the Uranium Holding ARMZ’s plans, in the near future Khiagdinskoye Ore Field can become the uranium mining industry center of Russia. “On the whole, the potential of Vitimskoye Uranium Ore Region is estimated at over 300,000 tons of uranium and new deposits may be expected within the region’s boundaries. Upon the Federal Agency for Natural Resources’ request the explorations are carried out and planned in Amalatskaya and Antaseiskaya Areas as well as in Northern Baisykhansky, Barkasunsky and Kulariktinsky properties. In case the estimations of the potential are confirmed to be true, Khiagda production site will turn out to be in the center of the richest region and, undoubtedly, the company expects further growth of production capacities,” said Vladimir Vysotsky, Deputy CEO for Special Projects at the Uranium Holding ARMZ.