Eurasia Mining is aiming to establish a minimum 10 year project producing platinum in its Russia property West Kytlim project.
Russia-focused PGM explorer and developer Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) has confirmed positive developments at its West Kytlim project.
Highlights:
– The Technical Design Report for the diesel operation at Malaya Sosnovka has been submitted to the Ministry for Subsoil use.
– Contractors assessing the route for the proposed power line to West Kytlim have finished all necessary field work including land surveying, ecological sampling and shallow geotechnical drilling.
– The Company has now received the topographic survey from the contractors for the next area to be mined, the Kluchiki area.
The mining schedule requires a diesel powered start up phase targeting high grade reserves at surface in the Malaya Sosnovka area. The Technical Design Report mentioned above has been submitted to the relevant ministry for mine plan approval to be obtained prior to commencement of operations. Separately, a mine plan is being developed to cover development of the entire licence area using mains electrical power, which is planned to be available after construction of a power line to site. We believe the main advantage for the use of grid electrical power is clear, as the price is estimated at 5 US$ cents per KWh.
This compares with average industrial power costs in the UK of 13 US$ cents per KWh. A field assessment on the route of the power line has now been completed. Eurasia believes the advantages of electrical power will become obvious as we move towards producing from more than one site, and with the commencement of the deployment of electrically powered dragline operations. Draglines can operate 12 months of the year and will be used for overburden removal and stockpiling of mineralized material for later processing. The next area (within West Kytlim) which Eurasia will target for mining operations, the Kluchiki area, has now been surveyed in detail. We believe this will greatly assist advanced planning for the location of infrastructure including wash plants and water storage and tailings dams required for production in the second year of operations at West Kytlim
Managing director Christian Schaffalitzky said: “While the diesel operation is smaller scale and more expensive per tonne than electrical power, it allows us to establish operations at West Kytlim for the long term. Eurasia is aiming to establish a minimum 10 year project producing platinum.”
