Magadan Region

First occurrences of gold in the vicinity of Natalka deposit had been found in 1942-1943 as a result of a 1:25 000 scale prospecting of the area between creeks Geologicheskiy and Pavlik.  More detailed 1:5 000 scale prospecting in 1944 led to discovery of Natalka, Omchak and  Pavlik deposits.

General surface and underground exploration of the deposit and the surroundings continued until 1958. Between 1958 and 1967 the emphasis was made on exploration drilling, purposed to obtain more accurate data about major ore bodies involved in production.

In the period from 1968 to 1999 exploration continued on a larger scale over the entire ore-bearing zone, at the same time focusing on individual ore bodies. Exploration was conducted by means of surface and underground mining, as well as core drilling.

In 2003 the Polyus Group launched a major exploration project to re-evaluate Natalka resources and design a new production concept for the deposit. At the same time new mine’s infrastructure is being built, including ore processing plant and lab facilities.

In 2004-2006 large-scale exploration effort were carried out at the deposit, providing 120 000 meters of diamond drilling, about 655 000 cubic meters of trenches and more than 44 000 samples.

In the end of 2006 State Reserves Committee (GKZ Rosnedra) of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation completed its expertise of the scoping study for Natalka deposit.

The expertise resulted in the state listing of 1500.8 tonnes (48 m oz) of gold in Russian B+C1+C2 categories in pit outline at the average grade 1.7 g/t, including 1282.9 tonnes (41,2 m oz) of B+C1. In addition to this, the state expertise confirmed 335.3 tonnes (11 m oz) as off-balance reserves outside the pit outline.

The scoping study is based on the open pit mining. Total investments into the projects will amount up to US$1.5 billion. The production of gold at Natalka is scheduled to commence in 2012. The annual gold production will amount to approx. 30 tonnes (1 m oz), on reaching full project capacity.