JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed precious metals producer Eurasia has appointed alluvial mining contractor Techstroy to mine the West Kytlim project, which contains the world’s second-largest alluvial platinum reserve.

The new contractor has hit the ground running, starting site work in the first week of March, which Eurasia said on Friday was a “marked improvement” on the start of its 2017 mining season.

Mining will initially focus on the Malaya Sosnovka site, which contains 275 000 m³ of productive gravels and 84 kg of raw platinum. Mining will progress to the larger Kluchiki site, which contains 893 000 m³ of productive gravels for 319 kg of raw platinum.

Eurasia maintains complete ownership of the project, which is located in the Ural mountains of western Russia. Sales revenues will be split 65:35 in favour of the contractor with no further financial consideration.

Techstroy, based in Nizhny Tagil, will manage mining, trucking and beneficiation of platinum-bearing gravels, including the delivery and installation of mining and processing equipment. The company has committed a fleet of mining equipment to the project including two Komatsu excavators, three bulldozers, one loader and five Kamaz 6520 ore trucks.

Techstroy is permitted to deploy a second washplant during the 2018 mining season.

Eurasia said that its directors were confident that Techstroy had the necessary skill set and balance sheet to execute a successful mining operation.

In mid-October last year, the previous contractor, RegionMetall, discontinued operations as its mining method was sensitive to weather conditions. The contractor only produced 211 oz of raw platinum in the 2017 mining season. Eurasia continued to operate at West Kytlim after RegionMetall stopped operations and produced a further 135 oz of raw platinum using some of the contractor’s equipment and hired machinery.

The project currently has 2 283 kg of raw platinum in reserves with resources and resource potential of a further 10 t of raw platinum.