Russia’s government plans to expand a special economic zone in the Far East of the country to secure an initial investment of US$38 million into a gold and silver mining project.
The Ministry for the Development of the Far East of Russia is backing an amendment to the legislation that will allow for an expansion of the Nikolaevsk Advanced Special Economic Zone (ASEZ).
The parameters of the zone are being changed to “help realize a large investment project,” an official at the ministry said. Russia’s NGK Resource, which specializes in geological exploration and production of metals and minerals, is behind the mine project in the expanded part of the zone, an official at the company said.
The investor intends to build an ore processing plant at the Polyanka deposit, which is estimated to contain recoverable reserves of 7.75 tons of gold and 12.2 tons of silver.
“Work’s already started. Within a year, we expect to start the production. Over the longer term, we want to reach an annual gold production of 1.5 tons,” Andrei Shabalin, chief economist of NGK Resource, said in an interview.
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