Khakanja

Quick facts

Location: Khabarovsk Region, Russian Far East
Mining: open pit/underground
Processing: Merrill Crowe
Production FY2012: 90.8 Koz of gold and 4.4 Moz of silver
Ore reserves (JORC): 0.7 Moz gold eq. (at an average grade 7.5 g/t)
Mineral resources (JORC)*: 0.3 Moz gold eq. (at an average grade 5.3 g/t)
Production start date: 2003
Life of mine: 2018
Adj EBITDA FY2012: 178 US$m
Capex FY2012: 20 US$m
TCC FY2012: 614 US$/oz gold

Overview

Khakanja is one of Polymetal’s principal assets with gold and silver operations and a 600 Ktpa Merrill-Crowe processing plant. Contributing mines include the main Khakanja pit, the small Yurievskoye underground mine, Ozerny developing open-pit operation and a trial mine at the AK Project.

The Company is expanding open-pit mining at Khakanja’s pit 3. An open-pit mining started at the new satellite Ozerny in Q4 2012 with. Ore from Ozerny will be being processed at Khakanja. Ozerny is of considerable importance to the Group, given the relatively short life of the Khakanja mine (2018) and the resulting potential under-utilisation of the plant from 2015 unless new reserves are discovered and mined.

Polymetal also carries out near-mine exploration projects within 1,580 sq km of exploration areas, which aim to extend the economic life of Khakanja. Active efforts are under way to identify small-scale high-grade open-pittable targets.

Khakanja feeding sources:

Operating mines

• Khakanja gold and silver mine (2002-2015 – open-pit)
• Yurievskoye underground gold and silver mine (2007-2013)
• Avlayakan open-pit gold and silver mine (2010-n/a)
• Ozerny open-pit gold mine

Location

The Khakanja mine is located in the Khabarovsk Territory, approximately 1,100 km north of Khabarovsk and 480 km west of the city of Magadan in a very sparsely populated area covered with taiga forest. The seaport of Okhotsk (which has a population of approximately 4,200 people) is approximately 118 km to the south and can be accessed by an unpaved road built by the Group between 1999 and 2002 which is accessible all year.

The Yurievskoye deposit is located approximately 100 km to the south-west of Khakanja and the Ozerny deposit is located approximately 70 km to the north-west of Khakanja; both deposits can only be accessed by a winter road from January through mid-April.

Fuel, consumables and spares are shipped to Khakanja from the seaports of Vladivostok and Vanino via the seasonal port of Okhotsk, which is open from late May until early November. From Okhotsk, cargo is transported to the mine by trucks. During winter, when the port is not accessible by sea, emergency spares are delivered to the mine by air.

Due to the remote location of Khakanja, electricity is generated on-site by diesel-powered generators, with a total installed capacity of 6 MW.