The first bar of gold was molded in Magadan at the Natalkinskiy Mineral Processing Plant. The alloy is called doré, which combines gold and silver. The bar produced in Kolyma weighs over 10 kg. The largest plant in the country will process up to 10 mln tons of minerals annually once it starts working at full power. It will produce 420-470 thousand oz of gold yearly.
Anastasia Zubchenko will report on how metal turns into gold.
The first precious metal alloy of Natalkinskiy Mineral Processing Plant weighs 10 kg 800 gr. It is the main new project of the Polyus company. The molding was done during the startup and commissioning phase of the gold recovery plant. A special furnace keeps the temperature at 1,250 degrees.
Shailoobek Tairov, production director, "This alloy should contain 70% gold and 20% silver. Future analysis will show exactly, but based on our experience, we think it will be so".
It is electrolysis — the next-to-last stage of manufacturing the doré bars. The enriched gold solution is placed in these containers. Afterward, by means of electrolysis, or electricity, the gold is deposited onto cathodes. Experts of the factory say that 99.9% of what is plated on the cathode becomes the ingot.
Later, the deposited matter is removed and dried. Then the smelting process begins. In order to exclude other metals from the alloy, the ore is scanned by a magnet before it is sent to production.
Konstantin Kopylov, construction director, "Sometimes pieces of metal can get into the ore, for example, some spare parts during mining. But we haven't had such cases".
The milled ore is transmitted to one of the largest trunk conveyors in the country. It is 1,600 meters long, with 950 meters running underground. Afterward, the ore passes through one of the largest pulverizers in Russia.
Sergey Logunov, pulverizer mechanic, "It is partly operated from here, and partly — from the operating section. We cooperate closely with it. The operators control the process as well. We help each other".
Now the Natalkinskiy mineral processing plant is testing its technology chain round-the-clock. The factory should start working at its full potential by the end of 2018. That means processing 10 mln tons of minerals and 13 tons of gold per year. Already now there are 1,600 employees working here and 7 mln tons of gold-bearing ores have been mined.
Anastasia Zubchenko, Anton Panov, Vesti, Magadan
