Peter Hambro Mining and Gold
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter Hambro Mining PLC is a London-based gold mining company with operations in Russia. Its shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange. (LSE: POG)
The company was formed in 1994, and has been one of the fastest growing gold producers, and is the third largest producer in Russia with assets spread throughout the far eastern provinces. It is the first Eastern Russian mining company to have a market capitalization of over US$1 billion and employs over 1,600 people worldwide. The company’s target is to produce 1 million troy ounces of gold per annum by 2009.
Contents |
[edit] Location
The Company’s operations are based in the Amur Region of Eastern Russia. The region offers a wealth of mineral deposits and provides a strong infrastructure for the company’s main assets. The Pokrovskiy and Pioneer mine are both within proximity to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the company’s policy of using Russian professionals wherever possible means that there is a large supply of local labour and local expertise. The company has two principal mines at Pokrovskiy and Pioneer, which are its main producers. It also continues to develop other mines in Malomir, Tokur, Yamal Zoloto, and Voroshilovskoye.
[edit] Mining
The company operates “open pit” mines which are essentially well planned craters dug into the ground. To excavate the ore, grids of holes are drilled into it and dynamite is then inserted into the holes. This process in known as “blasting” and the blasted ore is then removed from the pit in ore trucks which are capable of carrying 35 tonnes of ore.
To remove the gold from the ore Peter Hambro Mining uses two main processes: Heap Leaching and Milling.
[edit] Heap leaching
Heap leaching is a lengthy process. The ore is stacked on impervious clay / PVC leach pads. A cyanide solution is then sprinkled over the ore – the cyanide filters through the ore dissolving the gold and is collected through the drain at the base of the leach pad.
[edit] Milling
Milling is a much swifter process in which the ore is crushed in SAG (semi autogenous) and Ball Mills and then treated with a cyanide solution. The gold in the cyanide solution is collected on synthetic resin particles and put through a process called electrowinning which collects an impure (+/-80%) form of gold called Doré. The Doré is then sent to a smelting plant to be refined to .9990 fine gold bars.
Cyanide is used as it is the most effective way to remove metals from their ore - it is carefully isolated during the heap leach process and the solution used is so weak that it can be broken down by sun light. However Peter Hambro Mining uses a cyanide destruction process before the tailings are discharged.
[edit] Board of Directors
- Pavel Maslovsky
- Peter Hambro
- Jay Hambro
- Alexei Maslovsky
- Andrey Maruta
- Alya Samohkvalova
- Peter Hill-Wood
- Sir Rudolph Agnew
- Philip Leatham
[edit] Family business
Peter Hambro Mining was founded by Peter Hambro and Pavel Maslovsky in 1994 and both their sons, Jay and Alexei, have joined the company since. Peter and Jay Hambro are descendants of the Hambro Merchant Banking family that formed Hambros Bank. Peter Hambro started his career as a banker at Hambros Bank in 1966 before moving into the gold sector at Mocatta and Goldsmid. He is a non-executive director of SG Hambros Bank & Trust Co. Ltd. the name under which the old Hambros Bank now trades. Pavel Maslovsky was a Professor in plasticity at Moscow University until 1991 when he launched his business career.
[edit] Other Russian businesses
Peter Hambro and Pavel Maslovsky were the founders and remain large shareholders of Aricom PLC – an AIM listed iron-ore and titanium mining company operating in Amur Region. They also formed Russian Timber Group Ltd. (previously named Tynda Forest Holding Ltd.), a Jersey registered company that harvests and processes timber in Russia and China.
