27th Feb 2020 15:43
(Alliance News) - Russia-focused gold miner Polymetal International PLC on Thursday reported a rise in reserves due to a re-evaluation of reserves at various ongoing projects and and an initial reserve estimate from one other project.
The Cyprus-headquartered company said its ore reserves increased by 5% year-on-year to 25.2 million ounces of gold equivalent as at January 1 due to successful exploration results with the subsequent re-evaluation of reserves at Kyzyl, Veduga, Kutyn and initial estimate at Primorskoye.
Mineral resources, however, declined by 4% year-on-year to 25.4 million ounces of gold equivalent due to the disposal of the Lichkvaz project and conversion of mineral resources to ore reserves at Kyzyl deposit, the company said, adding that decline was compensated by initial mineral resources estimate of Elevator deposit and increase of resources at Albazino and Svetloye.
The average grade in ore reserves and mineral resources remained largely unchanged over the previous year at 3.7 grams per tonne of gold equivalent and 5.2 grams per tonne, respectively.
Polymetal completed 198 kilometres of of exploration drilling in 2019 at a total expense of USD18.1 million.
"Significant growth in ore reserves at Kyzyl and a two-fold increase in reserves at Veduga were the key drivers behind the group's ore reserves extension," said Chief Executive Vitaly Nesis.
"In 2020, we will focus on reserves and resources updates at some of our key development projects and will continue exploration activities to extend the life of existing mines," Nesis added.
Shares in Polymetal were down 0.8% at 1,298.50 pence each in London on Thursday afternoon.
By Tapan Panchal; [email protected]
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