Without a log, not to the threshold - Newspaper Kommersant No. 49 (7494) of 03/23/2023

Without a log, not to the threshold - Newspaper Kommersant No. 49 (7494) of 03/23/2023



As Kommersant found out, Polyus is considering the possibility of buying ready-made assets for the development of the large Sukhoi Log gold deposit. The company has already announced a change in the parameters of the project due to the suspension of cooperation with some foreign equipment suppliers. According to Kommersant, one of the options could be the acquisition of GV Gold gold recovery plants, which are located near Sukhoi Log.

The largest Russian gold mining company Polyus is interested in acquiring the GV Gold Golets Vysochaishy deposit in the Bodaibo district of the Irkutsk region, four sources told Kommersant. Polyus and GV Gold did not comment. GOK on Goltz includes three gold recovery plants (GIF), an assay laboratory, an open-pit mining site and a placer gold mining site, and a shift camp. The production capacity of the refinery is 5 million tons of ore, gold production in 2021 was at the level of 87.1 thousand ounces.

According to Kommersant's sources, Polyus's interest in the asset is explained by its geographical proximity to the company's flagship project, Sukhoi Log, which is also located in the Bodaibo district. The company's production report for 2022 states that against the backdrop of the current geopolitical situation, Polyus has postponed the completion of the Sukhoi Log banking feasibility study. “As part of the project, the company stopped interacting with some international manufacturers of process equipment, but has already identified alternative suppliers,” the document says, which also states that Polyus continues to work on adjusting project documentation, focusing on the reconfiguration of the mill.

Potentially, the GV Gold gold refinery could take over part of the volume of ore from Sukhoi Log, Kommersant's interlocutors believe. The pre-feasibility study of the project provided for the processing of 33.2 million tons of ore and the production of 2.3 million ounces of gold per year. The start of production was expected in 2027, but this year Polyus intends to present an updated schedule. In September 2017, Pavel Grachev, who headed Polyus at that time, told Interfax that in the baseline scenario, the company plans to process ore from Sukhoi Log at specially built facilities, but will be ready to consider using existing ones, including neighboring GV Gold. GV Gold itself in 2016, before the Sukhoi Log auction, declared its readiness to become its operator or buy ore for processing.

GV Gold (the main shareholders are the top managers of Lanta-Bank Sergey Dokuchaev, Natalya Opaleva and the head of one of its structures Valerian Tikhonov) is a traditional object of interest for players in the gold mining industry. At various times, Chinese Fosun, Roman Trotsenko, Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev, Vladislav Sviblov, UMMC were interested in her. However, each time the parties did not agree on the price. According to one of Kommersant's sources, such an outcome is also possible in this case.

Buying buildings and equipment may be a more efficient solution than building a plant from scratch, says Boris Sinitsyn, head of the Renaissance Capital analytical group for metallurgy and mining. The assets are conveniently located: within a radius of 10 km and 25 km are the Verninskoye field and Sukhoi Log Polyus. The analyst draws attention to the incomparability of the scale of Sukhoi Log and GV Gold. “Therefore, a division into stages is also possible: commissioning of a smaller capacity, but earlier, and a planned output 30 million later,” he notes. In any case, this is a theoretical opportunity for Polyus to reduce risks, capital costs and speed up the project, but, most likely, the peculiarity of the Sukhoi Log ores will require the re-equipment of the mill, Boris Sinitsyn believes.

The presence of operating processing plants in the immediate vicinity of Sukhoi Log may have a positive impact on the timing of the project and its payback, independent expert Maxim Shaposhnikov believes. According to him, the equipment of the plant can be valued at $50–70 million, and taking into account the remaining reserves, the price could be about $90 million. partial processing of ore from Sukhoi Log. If we talk about the acquisition of an asset, the expert adds, based on the volume of production, age and capacity of the factory, its cost will not exceed $100 million.

Evgeny Zainullin



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