Polyus announced on Tuesday that it has completed a $60 million expansion of the Verninskoye mill, allowing for an additional 40,000 ounces of incremental gold volumes at the mine.
The mill in the Irkutsk region of Eastern Siberia has now achieved its target hourly throughput rate of 450 t/h and is currently running at an annualized capacity of 3.5 million tonnes.
The expansion included the installation of an additional crushing circuit comprising of a ball mill and two vibrating screens in the extension of the main building.
An additional cone crusher and screens were installed to reduce recirculation and increase the throughput capacity of the existing SAG mill, Polyus said.
The gravity concentration circuit was equipped with additional centrifugal concentrators and a hydrocyclone unit which were also installed in the main building extension.
Polyus became the world’s largest gold miner by reserves after its total proved and probable ore reserves had risen by 71% to 104 million ounces of gold at the end of 2020 due to the inclusion of reserves at its giant Sukhoi Log deposit.
Polyus was previously the world’s third-largest gold miner by reserves behind Newmont and Barrick.
Midday Tuesday, Polyus’ stock was up 4.3% on the LSE. The company has a $29.94 billion market capitalization.
