ASTANA (TCA) — Polymetal is planning to become the second-largest gold producer in Kazakhstan with a total output of 13 tons of gold per year from its Varvarinskoye and Kyzyl mines by 2020, Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reported citing Kanat Dosmukametov, Polymetal’s managing director in Kazakhstan.
Polymetal is a leading precious metals producer in Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia.
“Polymetal is now among Kazakhstan’s seven largest gold producers, with a market share of 6.2 percent,” Dosmukametov said.
“We will be just selling concentrate. It will give us different options for processing and, most importantly, we will move to outside of Kazakhstan the processing stage with arsenic-containing waste, which will preserve our ecology,” Dosmukametov commented on Polymetal’s plans on Kyzyl project in East Kazakhstan.
Some 50 percent of gold refining will be conducted in Kazakhstan. “Concentrate with low content of carbon and arsenic will be processed in Russia with further refining back in Kazakhstan as required by the Kazakh law. And concentrate with high carbon and arsenic content will be fully processed in China,” he added.
Polymetal said on April 4 that it had entered into a binding agreement with Kazzinc LTD, a subsidiary of Glencore plc, for the acquisition of Orion Minerals LLP, the holding company for the Komarovskoye gold deposit in Kazakhstan.
Komarovskoye is located in the north-western Kazakhstan, 10 kilometres from the city of Zhitikara (population 35,000) and approximately 187 kilometres by rail from Polymetal’s Varvarinskoye mine. The total area of subsoil licenses at the project is 104 square km.
The acquisition of Komarovskoye is in line with Polymetal’s processing hub strategy and provides a high grade, open-pittable and easily accessible ore feed for Varvarinskoye mine with simple and well-understood metallurgy.
