Petropavlovsk unveils 11 percent rise in ore reserves

Petropavlovsk, the Russian gold miner, has increased its proven and probable ore reserves by 11 percent, as at January 1st 2012.

The reserves increased from around 9.1m oz at an average grade of 1.17g per tonne gold to around 10.2m oz at an average grade of 1.13g/t gold.

The firm also reported a 6% increase in total mineral resources from approximately 21.2m oz to 24.5m oz, of which 14.4m oz are measured and indicated, while 10.2m oz are inferred.

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The reserves were estimated using a gold price of $1,000 per oz.

The average gold grade remains in line with the previous year, despite the mining of high-grade material during 2011, due to the continued success of the exploration programmes at Pioneer and Albyn, Petropavlovskoye and Visokoe.

The Visokoe deposit is closer to production following an increase from 3.6m oz to 5.1m oz in the group's non-refractory proven and probable ore reserves, while exploration results from Pioneer, Malomir and Albyn have identified new zones of both non-refractory and refractory mineralisation, the results of which have so far only partly been reflected in the group's resource estimate.

Sergey Ermolenko, Chief Executive Officer, said: "I am very pleased to announce yet another increase in our Group's reserves and resources following a successful exploration programme carried out by our team of geologists during last year; and that this was achieved despite the depletion of c.0.65Moz through production in 2011.

"A significant amount of these was added to existing operating sites, prolonging the life of these operations and improving their overall profitability."

The share price rose 3.73% t0 765.00p by 08:57.

NR