Rusgeology sees Russia’s gold output at 300 tns in 2016–2017

MOSCOW, Dec 23 (PRIME) -- Geological exploration company Rusgeology, also known as Rosgeo, says that combined annual gold output of Russian gold producers may rise to 300 tonnes in 2016–2017 from 288.5 tonnes in 2014, CEO Roman Panov told PRIME Wednesday.

“We have every reason to hope that in 2016–2017 we will pass the 300-tonne threshold of annual production, despite the crisis and sanctions, mainly due to active involvement of iron ore and multi-resource fields in the Far East and Siberia’s south into development,” he said.

Currently, Russia’s gold production is second only to the China, and gold reserves of 12,700 tonnes are second only to South Africa. But experts say that at least 40% of Russia’s reserves are non-commercial or sub-economic, and about 25% of the remainder, about 2,000 tonnes, will be lost due to inefficient production technologies, he said.

Russia has only 5,600 tonnes of active reserves left and enough for 20 years given the 300-tonne annual output, he said.

But Russia’s resource potential under the P1 and P2 categories stands at 16,500 tonnes and under the P3 category amounts to 23,600 tonnes. “Rusgeology has promising sites in its portfolio, but we have to carry out appraisal and exploration works so that they become fields. And this means huge investments of tens of billions of rubles. And we cannot do without public-private partnership here,” Panov said.

(71.1211 rubles – U.S. $1)

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