Siberian gold deposit Dry Log

The Dry Log deposit is located in Siberia, in the heart of the Lena gold basin. The distance from it to Irkutsk is 850 km. This deposit was discovered as far back as 1961. In the 70's it was actively explored, and in the 80's, extensive preparatory work was carried out here. For the last time, the draft terms of the tender for the development of this vein of the Ministry of Natural Resources proposed to the government in 2016.

general description

The Sukhoi Log deposit is located among rocks of Upper Proterozoic marine sandstones, phyllites and carbonate schists. Actually, its gold-bearing body itself is stretched along the axis of the anticlinal inclined fold. The richest ore deposits contain 4-10 grams of gold per ton of gangue. They are located in the layers of black shale. In particular, there is a lot of gold at the intersection of the latter with the axial zone of the fold. In such places, during geological prospecting, two very promising ore posts were discovered.

The anticlinal gold deposit of the Sukhoi Log deposit stretches for more than 3 km from east to west. Then the ore descends to the ground. According to preliminary data, this huge deposit accounts for about 28% of Russia's gold reserves. Forecasted metal resources are about 1953 tons. The Dry Log deposit is also promising in the sense that 1541 tons of silver can be mined here as well.

What preparatory work was carried out

In the late 80-ies of the last century by the decision of the government in the area of future developments:

• Built transmission lines;

• The construction of the Telmam hydropower plant began;

• Built the road Taksimo - Dry log;

• Reconstructed the runway of the city of Bodaibo.

Immediately on the field itself, preliminary work was carried out on the construction of a gold recovery plant.

Type of ore

Studies carried out in the 1970s showed that most of the gold in the Sukhoi Log deposit is associated with sulphide minerals (mainly pyrite). The interval of the content of this metal in the rock is 0.5-10 g / ton. The average indicator in this case is 2.7 g / ton.

Dry log in the 90s

The first operator of this rich field in the 90s of the last century was the Lenzoloto company with Australian partners. However, this company, unfortunately, ripped off the terms of development. So, in 1998, her license was revoked. In the subsequent statements about the plans to appoint a new auction sounded from the Ministry of Natural Resources almost every year. However, the business shifted from a deadlock in this respect only in 2016.

Revaluation of inventories

The dry log is a deposit of gold, which in the 1970s was studied by such authoritative institutions of the country as, for example, MISiS, SIMS, VNIIKhT, etc. However, in 2007-2008 the Ministry of Natural Resources decided to make an assessment of its reserves anew. This work was entrusted to TsNIGRI. As a result of the research carried out by the specialists of this institution, a new scheme for processing the deposit's ores has been developed. Engineers and geologists of TsNIGRI proposed to use photometric separation for working with rock with subsequent application of flotation-gravity technology. This technology is considered much more effective than the one used in the USSR.

Who bought the license

The development of the Sukhoi Log deposit (Irkutsk region) will be the Polyus company. It was on January 27, 2017 that the Ministry of Natural Resources sold the license. This society belongs to Said Kerimov. In addition to this company, only the corporation "Gold Bodaibo" took part in the auction. The lot was sold for 9.4 billion rubles. At the same time, as a deposit, on December 21, 2016, Polyus brought in 8.5 billion. Specially for participation in the auction, the company created a subsidiary of OOO SL Gold.

месторождение Сухой лог претендовало на торгах всего два подрядчика . Thus, only two contractors bid for the Sukhoi Log deposit . This is explained, first of all, by the fact that the state exposed the veins for auction on very harsh conditions. For example, foreign contractors were excluded from bidding. тендентов обязали в некоторых случаях привлекать госкомпании. In some cases, they were obliged to involve state companies. The result of such a policy of the Ministry of Natural Resources was even the fact that "Gold Bodaibo" took part in the auction no more than formally - only so that they will be held at all.

Polyus Plans

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Dry Log is a gold ore deposit, the development of which will require a total of about 4-6 billion dollars in investments. At the initial stage, Polyus plans to conduct additional exploration work at the field. To this end, it is expected to attract foreign specialists. According to the company, it takes about 3-4 years to test the resources. Later on, the specialists of the company will evaluate the possibility of using the same ore processing technologies on the Sukhoy Log veins as the Verninskoye gold deposit located nearby (also owned by Polyus).