The gold reserves of this Soviet-era mine amount to 1,134 tons of ore.
Polyus Gold, the largest mining company in Russia, has discovered a gold mine in an unexplored area of Siberia. Polyus Gold is currently working to secure 100% ownership of this highly promising gold mine.
The mine, known as Sukhoi Log, has the largest reserves in the world, estimated at approximately 1,134 tons of ore with an average gold content of 2.3 grams per ton, equivalent to about 40 million ounces of gold, and accounts for more than a quarter of the gold reserves in the entire Russian Federation.
The mine is called Sukhoi Log, which has the largest reserves in the world. (Photo: Alexey Dozmorov/Getty Images/CAPITAL).
The Sukhoi Log mine is located in Irkutsk, a remote area in Siberia, discovered by Soviet geologists in 1961 and studied in the 1970s. In 2020, the Russian government decided to transfer the mining rights back to Polyus Gold, where Suleyman Kerimov holds a majority stake.
Pavel Grachev, the CEO of Polyus, stated in a declaration: “We are pleased with the results achieved. Announcing the estimated gold reserves is an important step in Polyus Gold’s long-term development strategy and confirms Sukhoi Log’s position as one of the most significant gold mines in the world.”
According to company representatives, the cost of extracting from this massive mine could reach up to $2.5 billion due to the complex mining process and the need for advanced machinery to access it.
Polyus Gold has begun allocating budget for the project’s infrastructure and plans to make total investments in 2023. However, these efforts are expected to pay off. According to the Financial Times, once operational, this mine could produce up to 1.6 million tons per year, helping Polyus Gold increase its annual output by at least 70%.
Photo of the Olimpiada mine. (Photo: Polyus.com)
In addition to the goal of accessing the world’s largest mine, Sukhoi Log, in the near future, Polyus Gold also holds and is currently extracting gold from the Olimpiada mine, which is extremely important with equally abundant reserves. The mine has been in operation since 1996 and currently accounts for nearly half of Polyus Gold’s total gold production.
Although operational performance in 2020 was somewhat affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Olimpiada still ranks first among the gold mines being mined in Russia and third worldwide, with a total annual production of 1,199.8 koz. In the first quarter of 2021, Olimpiada produced 265 koz of gold, a 4% decrease compared to the same period last year.
