Geological explorers from NEFU conquered the legendary gold-bearing place

A special report from a unique deposit. The route to the Nezhdaninskoye field and the shift settlement of the same name, located in the Tomponsky district of Yakutia, runs along the Kolyma highway among the most beautiful spurs of the Verkhoyansk range, through many mountain streams, rivulets and rivers.

The Yakutia journalist happened to visit this truly legendary place as part of a delegation headed by the Minister of Ecology and Nature Management of the RS (Ya) Sakhamin Afanasyev. The purpose of the working trip was to get acquainted with the state of affairs at the field and to monitor compliance with environmental legislation by the subsurface user company.

LEGENDARY, THE FOURTH LARGEST

The deposit itself was discovered back in 1951 by the Dybinsk geological exploration party. With the light hand of geologists, the area got its name: scientists did not expect to find such deposits of precious metals here. As they say: "We didn't wait!"

Over the following decades, a lot of work was invested in exploration and production. In the dashing 90s, due to inefficient management and the economic crisis in the country, the deposit and the shift settlement decayed and fell into disrepair.

With the onset of the "noughties", the Nezhdaninsky began to be revived, but it was not able to reach the former volumes of production and enrichment of precious metals. Currently, the "Nezhdaninka", as it was lovingly called and is called by successive generations of shift workers, can be said to be gaining a second wind. And no wonder: despite the intensive development of the deposit in the last century, the mountains surrounding the shift settlement contain explored and undiscovered reserves of precious metals.

The deposit is the fourth largest gold reserve in Russia and has huge potential for large-scale open-pit mining followed by underground mining. The Yuzhno-Verkhoyansk Mining Company is conducting additional geological surveys and is going to extract precious metals from the rock in the near future. It is she who holds the appropriate license for the geological study and extraction of precious metals at Nezhdaninsky. It should be noted that the Southern Mining Company specializes specifically in the development of resistant gold ores, and this is technologically much more difficult than the traditional mining method.

CORES AND "KINGLETS"

Upon arrival, we received a safety briefing: the hosts do not need accidents with guests. Then we were dressed up in company overalls, given special mountain boots and hard hats.

The management of the Southern Military District organized a number of introductory events. So, we went to the observation deck, where we were shown the proposed options for the placement of project quarries. Then they showed the core storage facility where the core is stored. In this case, the core is not a locksmith's tool, but a rock sample.

An excursion to the assay and analysis laboratory (PAL), located in a two-story building, made a great impression. Its premises are packed with modern equipment for the rapid and qualitative analysis of rocks and the smelting of gold samples. Note that until recently, the laboratory was located in an old wooden building.

The head of the PAL, Alevtina Garifullina, spoke in detail about the process of extracting precious metal samples from the core: from crushing, grinding and abrasion of the rock to smelting miniature spherical ingots, which are called "kings" here.

"We are rightfully proud of our laboratory, not every company has such equipment at its disposal. The laboratory's productivity is 24,000 samples per year," emphasized Alevtina Vasilyevna.

The members of the delegation were pleased to inspect the residential complex under construction for shift workers, as the current dormitories were built back in the 60s and 70s of the last century. Thus, during the visit, the entire infrastructure of the shift settlement was inspected, from industrial to residential and life-supporting facilities.

TWICE STUBBORN

— Currently, we are conducting additional geological exploration of reserves, drilling additional wells at different angles in order to take ore samples, — explained Dmitry Chuzhinov, the chief geologist of the deposit. — At the same time, three drilling crews are involved in the work.

2019 – the beginning of mining and capital works. 2022 – the first gold production. 2023 – reaching full production.

Nezhdaninskoye is a doubly stubborn deposit. What does it mean? The fact is that the components that are in the ore and interfere with mining are carbon, sulfur and antimony. As for the gold content, I have seen samples of 114 grams per ton of ore here, but such indicators are rather an exception to the rule. On average, 4 grams of gold per ton of ore is considered optimal here. There is also such a thing as an "on—board" content of 0.9 grams/ton, at which it becomes unprofitable to extract and extract precious metals.

According to Dmitry Nikolaevich, during 2017 the company carried out large-scale geological exploration: 33.7 km were drilled. In November 2017, a report on the initial assessment of ore reserves was released. Thus, the reserves of Nezhdaninsky for open-pit mining are estimated at 15.5 million tons of ore with an average content of 4 grams of gold per ton. In other words, we are talking about... 2 million ounces of gold!

Additional resources are estimated at 55.9 million tons of ore with an average content of 5 grams of gold per ton, which is already 8.9 million ounces of gold.

FOR THE NEXT 11 YEARS

—We have long planned a visit to the field by members of the government of the republic in order to visually convey information about what we are doing and are going to do at Nezhdaninsky," said Alexander Simon, General Director of SEGC. — I believe that we have managed to familiarize our guests with the prospects of the deposit, specify the timing of the launch of new quarries and a gold extraction plant with a positive decision on the opening of an investment project. We also demonstrated the repaired roads and bridges, dormitories under construction, and new life support facilities for the shift settlement.

According to Alexander Viktorovich, in accordance with the future open-pit mining project, the volume of gold-bearing ore production will amount to 1.5 million tons per year. At the initial stage, production is expected to be conducted in two large quarries for 11 years using the traditional drilling and blasting method.

Speaking about the future factory, which will include crushing, crushing, flotation and gravity sites, Alexander Simon stressed that its design capacity will be 1.5 million tons per year. The tailings, which are empty rock after its enrichment, will be filtered and stored in an appropriate storage facility.

LOCAL AND NON-LOCAL PERSONNEL

During my stay in Nezhdaninsky, I met several acquaintances from Yakutsk. At the same time, there seemed to be a lot of shift workers from other regions of the country.

"The company currently employs 277 people at the field, 80 of them from Yakutia," explained Elizabeth Frank, Deputy General Director of the Southern Gas Company for Personnel. — At the same time, we are focused on hiring Yakut people. Another thing is that graduates of local universities and colleges studied mainly in diamond mining, but we are ready to train them in practice "for themselves".

When we meet with NEFU Geological Exploration Faculty students — in classrooms, in the field in practice, during The International Engineering case-in Championship on the basis of the SFVU, we directly talk about the high competition in the profession and the advantages of our team. We create all conditions, from domestic to technological, so that there are as many motivated and talented employees as possible. With successful studies, perseverance and hard work, everyone has a chance to join our company.

GOOD NEIGHBORLINESS

In the process of familiarizing with the company's work, it became clear that the company strives to establish long-term good-neighborly relations with the population and local authorities. The company takes care of a number of projects to preserve the cultural traditions of representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North.

So, last year, as part of an agreement with the administration of the Tomponsky district, a major overhaul of the Khandyg secondary school was carried out. Similar work has continued this year. These are the renovation of the sports hall of the Khandyg secondary school, co-financing the overhaul of the Harpana recreation center in the village of Topolinoe, the overhaul of the water supply and sewerage system of the Teploklyuchevskaya secondary school, the overhaul of the Chuoraanchyk kindergarten in the village of Krest-Khaljai and much more.

At the same time, anyone can use this road to travel to hunting grounds, reindeer herds or for tourist purposes.

Following the trip, the head of the Tomponsky district, Yakov Stepanov, spoke about the relationship with the subsurface user company.

— In August 2016, as part of the investment forum in Khandyg, an agreement on economic cooperation was signed between the administration of the district and the company YUVGC, — said Yakov Innokentievich. — As part of this agreement, since 2017, the company has been allocating financial resources to solve the tasks of the district. In addition to repairing schools, kindergartens, clubs and other social facilities, the company finances the holding of national holidays, including the KMNS Sabjack holiday, Reindeer Herders' Day, ysyakh ... I believe that YSGK is one of the most open, socially oriented mining companies in the district.

THE ECOLOGY IS NORMAL!

Sakhamin Afanasyev, Minister of Ecology, Nature Management and Forestry of the RS (Ya) shared his impressions after a study trip to the Nezhdaninskoye field:

— In 2016, the Nezhdaninskoye field development project was presented in Khandyg, and, as you know, the government of the republic pays special attention to large—scale projects implemented in the region, - said Sahamin Milanovich. — Preparatory work is currently underway to resume gold mining, much has been done to develop the infrastructure of the site, the shift settlement is being put in proper condition, mining and geological surveys are not stopping for a minute.

As for environmental protection measures, we expect a comprehensive plan from the company, which, in principle, we require from all subsurface users. At the moment, no violations of environmental legislation on the part of the Southern Agricultural Company have been identified.

Of course, there are no stripping operations at the field right now, and there are no emissions or discharges. However, the negative impacts that may occur in the future will be strictly regulated by environmental legislation. The company will defend relevant projects, participate in public hearings, and pay environmental protection payments, 55% of which will go to the local budget, 40% to the republican budget, and 5% to the federal budget.

LEAVING NEZHDANINKA

Last year, the company's efforts restored five bridges over mountain rivers that had been in poor condition for decades. A section of the municipal road "577th km of the Kolyma-Nezhdaninskoye highway with a length of one hundred kilometers has been repaired.

1.5 million tons is the volume of the average annual level of ore extraction and processing.
85 kilometers of wells have been drilled.
117 vein and ore zones have been identified.

At the same time, anyone can use this road to travel to hunting grounds, reindeer herds or for tourist purposes. And no one here will restrict people's travel, as, for example, the Transneft company does in the Lena region. By the way, you can easily get from the village of Teply Klyuch to Nezhdaninsky in four to five hours, without bumps and shaking.

It remains to add that the members of the delegation left this legendary gold-bearing place with full confidence that Nezhdaninka was gaining a second wind.

A source