Guidance for Eagle River this year is 80,000 to 90,000 oz. of gold.

The country has lithium, gold, bitumen and iron ore deposits and is intent on emulating nations such as Indonesia in climbing up the commodities value chain.

The longest mineralized core was 12 metres at 2.46 g/t gold, including 23.9 g/t gold over 0.9 metre.

Workers at the Modder East operation near Johannesburg were kept underground after the night shift ended by the AMCU.

Garofalo said governments should “stay out of the way" of mining projects because long lead times, unclear regulations and overlapping jurisdictions all drive away investment.

The company, with assets in the Ural region and further east in Siberia, is Russia's sixth largest gold producer.

The MRE showed a substantial increase in tonnes and contained metals over historical estimates provided by Vale.