American investors interested in gold mining in Ukraine. The company Avellana Gold has announced that it is preparing the project for the region. We are talking about the extraction of gold and gold-polymetallic ore in Majewska field. Americans are ready to invest about $100 million in the development of strategy of development of the field and the development of new infrastructure with the use of modern equipment.
This will include the development of gold and gold-polymetallic ores. The company’s plans will help to increase the annual production to 500 thousand tonnes of ore, while the existing mine equipment now allows you to extract only 120 thousand tons per year. “Today” figured out whether investing in gold is promising for the country’s economy.
PROSPECTS. If the American investment will yield result, it will be a positive signal for other foreign companies are also interested in implementation of similar projects in other regions of Ukraine, said the head of the Secretariat of the Council of entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers Andrei Zablovsky.
Moreover, according to geologists, gold deposits, except for Transcarpathia is in Kirovograd, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. “But such projects are long from the point of view of income, that is going to need 5-10 years. Therefore, the authorities should ensure that foreign companies protection from raiding and corruption”, — says Zablovsky.
And economist Ivan Nikitchenko believes that the implementation of the “Golden projects” perspective due to renewed growth of prices in the world market: “In 2013 the price of an ounce of gold was above $1700 in the beginning of 2016 — below $1100. And now the price per ounce (31.1 grams) is $1200-1275. The growth trend can be maintained for at least five years. In the end, the price per ounce could go over $1800 that will block the historic maximum in 2013.”
According to Nikitchenko, since the price of gold pegged to the dollar as the world reserve currency, investments in gold will allow Ukraine to improve the balance of trade, because the country will begin less to purchase gold abroad and even be able to sell the metal. “How our country can earn a gold, hard to say. Moreover, it is unknown what is the real cost of gold mining in the Carpathians. But when you consider the prices of precious metals in the world and to take into account that the ore production Majewska field will Narodny up to 500 tons, we can estimate that for the year will be able to produce gold of approximately $115 million Is an impressive figure,” said Nikitchenko.
It should be noted that the miners should sell precious metals strictly according to the law, a priority purchaser — the state. “The gold reserves of Ukraine, the NBU is created and consists of gold bullion. It is a state property and is a part of foreign reserves. Therefore, the precious metals, mined in Ukraine, in the first place offers the NBU and the Central body of Executive power in the sphere gorobynova control. If the national Bank refuses to purchase, then, the subject extraction can be realized by the precious metal at its discretion,” — said the press service of the NBU. The purchase price of the NBU and the market, it changes daily.
WHAT ELSE IN THE BOWELS. Experts believe that, in addition to gold, in our country there are also reserves of iron, manganese, titanium, zirconium and a number of chrome and Nickel ores, which can be interesting to implement investment projects.
“In Ukraine, in the form of minerals represented almost the whole periodic table. To a unique and large deposits are Iranskoe (beryllium), Azov (zirconium), Mazurovskoe (niobium, tantalum, zirconium), Pulkovskoe (lithium), Bridge (tantalum), etc. All this gives a real opportunity to enter the world market with pure and ultrapure metals: gallium, indium, thallium, beryllium, germanium, palladium — rare earth nomenclature consists of 400 items. And their output can be establish in Ukrainian institutes and laboratories, as the experience and potential of our scientists survived,” said a member of the Economic discussion club Alexander Kalenkov.
However, Nikitchenko noted that mass development of rare metals and deposits requires confirmation of reserves by geologists and adoption of the strategy for the development of specific industries on the state level: “But until then, investors can enter these markets occasionally”.
This honey gold
Scientists are wary of another resuscitation plans for production of Ukrainian gold. As we told the head of the Department of Geology of mineral deposits, geological faculty of National University. Shevchenko Vladimir Mikhailov, our gold is very “capricious”: contained in rocks from which it is difficult to extract, typically they produce about 50% of the precious metal.
“In 90 years, Ukraine has tried to establish gold mining in Majewska field in Transcarpathia (reserves are estimated at 400 tons of gold), in 1999 there was even cast in the first standard bullion in 400 oz (to 12.44 kg), — said Mikhailov. Just learned 840 kg of marketable gold, but by 2003 production had stopped: grams metal was worth more than the cost of its extraction from the earth”. According to him, the hyped Musievske field is small and unfavorable for development. The most interesting gold deposits in the Kirovograd, Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk regions, it is possible to produce not less than 1000 T.
Scientists have calculated that it is economically profitable to engage in prospecting, if the gold content in the rock 2-15 g / tonne. And at 2 g/t to start production is only subject to significant reserves of about 1000 tons.
In addition, according to experts, gold will have to destroy a huge amount of arable land, price of which is much more. If you mine ore mining method, the costs in General soar to dizzying heights. To extract gold from ore use toxic substances (cyanides), and the processing plant poses an enormous risk to the environment and people.
