Asacha Underground Mine, Kamchatka – Mineral Resource Estimation
The Kamchatka Peninsula in Far East Russia forms part of the volcanically and seismically active “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean. This geological setting is conducive to the formation of epithermal style gold and silver mineralisation. One of the prominent epithermal deposits in Kamchatka is the Asacha underground gold mine, owned by Trans-Siberian Gold (TSG), an AIM-listed company.
Asacha has been producing since 2011. Through to the end 2020, the average gold grade of the material processed was over 7 g/t. The zone of gold-bearing veins where mining began is now mostly depleted, but in 2019 TSG’s exploration team identified additional high-grade mineralisation in a parallel zone of veins, approximately 1km east.
TSG committed to an extensive program of resource definition drilling in this East Zone, and SRK Consulting (Russia) Ltd was engaged to prepare updates to the Mineral Resource estimate for Asacha. These updates were reported according to the definitions and standards of the JORC Code.
Based on the new drilling, the first update, reported in June 2020, increased the total gold Mineral Resource base for Asacha from 313,000 oz to 452,000 oz. After further drilling through 2020, a second update, issued in March 2021, increased the Mineral Resource base again, to 645,000 oz. Details of these Mineral Resource estimates are available from reports on TSG’s website. TSG expects these increases to the Mineral Resources will form the basis for substantially extending the Asacha mine life.
