DUSHANBE, February 21, 2013, Asia-Plus — The British mineral exploration and development company, Kryso Resources plc, has begun construction of a gold extraction factory at the Pakrut gold deposit.
According to LLC Pakrut, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kryso, the initial capacity of the factory will be as much as 600,000 tons of ore and two tons of gold with associated production of silver. An estimated budget for construction of the factory is more than 25 million U.S. dollars, a source at LLC Pakrut said.
Meanwhile, Kryso Resources Plc advises that further to previous announcements, construction of the underground mine and associated infrastructure at Pakrut is not now expected to be completed by March 2014 as previously scheduled.
Construction operations at Pakrut, which are in their early stages, are ongoing but delays have been experienced. The Company retains full confidence in the project construction and potential and will advise a new target date for the completion of construction and commencement of gold production at Pakrut in due course.
LLC Pakrut was granted an exploration and trial mining license over the Pakrut License Area, which comprises the Pakrut and Eastern Pakrut gold deposits and a surrounding 6,300 hectare exploration area containing a number of other deposits and mineral occurrences, in April 2004. This license is valid until April 1, 2014. There are three additional mineralized systems within five kilometers of the main Pakrut gold deposit. These are the Eastern Pakrut gold deposit, the Sulfidnoye gold and silver prospect and the Rufigar prospect.
According to Azam Ibrohim, the head of the main Geology Directorate under the Government of Tajikistan, the findings show that the Pakrut deposit has possible gold reserves of 28.1 tons in its upper horizons, while the lower horizons have possible gold reserves of 72 tons.
The Pakrut Gold Project lies within the southern portion of the Tien Shan Fold Belt, a belt of folded rocks that extends from near the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan through the northern part of Tajikistan into China and then into Mongolia. The Tien-Shan Fold Belt contains the world”s second largest known gold resources after the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Pakrut is located three hours by road northeast of Dushanbe.
In January 2012, the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan formally announced the issuance of a Mining License to LLC Pakrut for the Pakrut Gold Project. The mining license is valid until November 2, 2030 and the amount of ore that can be mined is variable depending on the mine plan. The mine plan submitted to the Ministry envisages an initial processing capacity of 660,000 tons of ore per annum, increasing to 1,320,000 tons per annum from 2017.
Initial metallurgical testwork was carried out by Tajik Geology with reported gold recoveries, using rudimentary gravity recovery methods, of 47% to 98%, Kryso Resources Plc’s website said. Consistently high gold recoveries of between 80% and 90% were reportedly attained using a combination of gravity methods and cyanidation. Further metallurgical testwork has been carried out by SGS Lakefield and BGRIMM which has confirmed the results of the work carried out by Tajik Geology.
Kryso is a mineral exploration company that is principally focused on exploring the gold and other precious metals deposits previously discovered in Central Asia during the era of the Soviet Union era and then, where appropriate, bringing them into production. Kryso, which has its head office in London, is a public company that is seeking admission to AIM in order to continue funding the development of the Pakrut Gold Deposit, further exploration at the Pakrut Licensed Area and to obtain and acquire other gold and base metal deposits in Tajikistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. The Group”s executive Directors and senior management are based in Dushanbe.
