Hong Kong-based, Khingan Resources, is an exploration company actively developing its Khinganolovo tailings project within the Maly Khingan orefield in Russia’s Far East.
The Khinganolovo tailings were created during mining operations at the Khinganskoye deposit between 1945 and 2005. From 2014, the company contracted out exploration work at the tailings dumps and has since defined JORC-compliant reserves and completed a DFS for the project. The project is located in a well-developed area with access to water, roads and electricity.
The two tailings dumps have a combined JORC-compliant resource of 6.5 Mt of ore at 0.14% tin, or 8,959 tonnes of tin and a JORC-Compliant reserve of 6.0 Mt of ore at 0.14% Sn, or 8,312 tonnes of tin. The DFS envisages a 1Mtpa truck and shovel operation producing 5,800 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate over a minimum of 7 years. Cash costs have been estimated at US$6,118 per tonne of refined tin with capital costs of US$ 6 million, of which 75% has been preliminarily secured from Russian Banks. Khingan has also announced principal agreements with smelters in Asia for supply of 60% Sn concentrates. The company expects to receive at general permit for construction by the end of Q2 this year with installation of equipment in December in preparation for first production in March 2017.
The company also acquired an exploration and mining license for the nearby Centalnoye deposit in December 2015, which has a historical resource of 11 kt of contained tin at 3.8% Sn. The company plans to re-estimate the resource and begin a scoping study in the first half of this year.
