“The decision of the State Reserves Committee confirmed the assessments of RosGeo experts, who discovered the largest gold deposit in Kabardino-Balkaria, the largest not only in the North Caucasus, but also in the European part of Russia,” emphasized Sergey Gorkov, Director General - Chairman of the Board of RosGeo. - This outstanding achievement became possible thanks to the efforts of the talented geologist Boris Mikhailov, who substantiated the necessity for searching for gold in this region, and whose name the discovered deposit was named after."
“The performed geological and economic assessment demonstrates the high profitability of the field development. The Head of Rosgeo said: “Here it is possible to build an enterprise with a capacity for mining and processing of up to 3.6 million tons of ore per year, which will make a significant contribution to economic development of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic”.
According to the terms and conditions of the state contract "Assessment for gold ore within the Gitche-Tyrnyauz ore field" in 2021, RosGeo experts, based on the results of all stages of the study of the deposit, developed a feasibility study for temporary exploration conditions with an estimate of the gold ore deposit reserves at the field "Named after B.K. Mikhailov”.
Taking into account the mining-geological and mining-technical conditions of the occurrence of the ore zones, the
Feasibility study suggested an open method of the field development. There was developed a technological model for ore reprocessing by the method of direct sorption-cyanidation with extraction of gold at the level of 85.5%. According to the Feasibility study, the net discounted income for the entire life of the deposit will be about 3 billion rubles with an internal rate of return of 17.26% and an investment return index of 1.12. The investment payback period will not exceed 7 years.
Boris Mikhailov (1950-2020) - a graduate of Novosibirsk State University, a geologist with 50 years of experience. Mr. Mikhailov worked for over 20 years in Magadan region, putting his way up from a geologist of the field geophysical team to the deputy head of the Natural Resources Committee. In 2001 - 2012 he worked in federal agencies, occupying positions of the head of the Mineral Resources Department in the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the head of the Geology Department of Rosnedra. 2012-2015 - Director of TSNIGRI. In 2015, he joined RosGeo as Director for Geological Exploration for Solid Mineral Recourses, since 2019 - Deputy General Director - Head of the Geology Unit for Solid Mineral Recourses.
Gold ore deposit named after B.K. Mikhailov is located at an altitude of 2200-2600 m on the northeastern flank of the Tyrnyauz tungsten-molybdenum field. There have been identified 17 ore zones with gold-quartz-sulfide mineralization of the veinlet and veinlet-disseminated type in the field, with a length from 60-150 m to 800-900 m and a thickness from 20-30 m to 120-155 m. The mineralization is extended to a depth of up to 300 m. The average gold grade based on the results of reserves calculation based on the cut-off grade option justified in the feasibility study is 1.56 grams per tonne.
The work on the study of gold content within the Gitche-Tyrnauz ore field began in the late 60-s of the 20-th century, but this initiative had not got an impetus for development. In the 21st century, the work was carried out within the framework of government contracts from 2010 to 2015 by specialists of Kabbalkgeologiya. In 2018-2021 the estimation of ore gold mining opportunities were performed under the state contract by specialists of North-Caucasian PGA.
