Gold miner Polymetal International has obtained a controlling interest in the Veduga deposit in Russia’s Northern Yenisey belt, opening the door for “multiple strategic options” for the noncore asset.
The miner has agreed to increase its stake in the Veduga deposit to 74.3% through the acquisition of a 31.7% stake in licence holder Amikan for $19.7-million worth of shares.
Polymetal CEO Vitaly Nesis said on Monday that Veduga remained noncore and that the company could still potentially sell the asset.
In the meantime, Polymetal would continue to process Veduga's high-grade ore at its existing processing facilities, he added in a news release.
Veduga is a high-grade refractory gold deposit with reserves of 1.4-million ounces of gold at 4.8 g/t and additional mineral resources of 0.4-million ounces at 4.9 g/t. Polymetal has been a partial owner of the property since 2006 with the original 50% stake acquired through a joint venture with South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti and subsequently diluted by external equity financing.
In 2012 to 2018, 2.88-million tons of ore, with an average grade of 3.84 g/t, containing 356 000 oz of gold, were extracted from the openpit mine at Veduga. The ore was sold to multiple processing plants, including Polymetal’s Varvara, Polysus’ Olimpiada and the Vasilyevsky plant of Vasilyevsky Rudnik.