The Tardan gold deposit

License
The license for exploration and extraction of gold at the Tardan deposit (KZL number BR 00 322) was obtained on 2004.07.27 and is valid until 2028.10.01. The license area is 1.2 km2 large.

Geographic position
The Tardan ore deposit is located in the central part of the Tyva Republic, 78 km from Kyzyl.

Geological characteristics of the deposit
The Targan deposit is located in the Tumat Taiga folded belt of the Tyva folded area, south-west of the Kaa Khem deep fault zone.

The intrusive rock, occupying 40% of the area, is represented by diorites and gabbro-diarites, more seldom by granite and granite-porphyry.
The main or controlling elements of the deposit are the contact zones between carbonate rock and minor intrusions of diorites and gabbro-diorites, grouped into linear zones. The width of the ore zones within the boundaries of the ore field changes from a couple of meters to 30-50 meters, with the lengths of hundreds of meters.

The ore bodies are linearly elongated stripes of hydrothermally processed sulphidised scarns with extremely complex inner morphology. The length of the ore bodies is between 20 and 150 m, the width is between 1 and 12,8 m.

The ores in the deposit can be classified as two mineralogical varieties of the gold sulphide types gold sulphide ores and gold sulphide ores with magnetite The magnetite content is 15-40% in the gold sulphide ores and more than 40% in the gold sulphide ores with magnetite. The total sulphide content is up to 5-6%, represented by copper pyrite, sphalerite and fahlore. The ores within the depth of exploration (100 m) are oxidised. The depth of occurrence of the primary ore has not been determined.

The ores are chatty, vein-disseminated to a lesser extent, the gold is mainly found intergrown with barren minerals: clorite, pyroxene, amphibole, aegirite, garnet (up to 60%), in contact with magnetite as inclusions (25%), in colloform limonite (10%).  The gold content in the ore is between 0,5 to 280 g/MT. Gold fineness 870-910.

The background data for the deposit
The Tardan deposit was discovered in 1964. The appraisal and exploration surveys were conducted between 1965 and 1979. 14 ore zones were identified, where 41 ore bodies have been preliminarily explored. However, it has been established by preliminary exploration that the gold deposits are not sufficient to ensure profitable mining operations.

Exploration of the central and southwestern parts of the ore field to a depth of 100 m was performed by Tardan Gold LLC.

The exploration works performed have resulted in deposits being booked under the following parameters, according to the Territorial Reserves Committee of the Subsurface Management Office of the Tyva Republic.

The following preliminary parameters were established:

• Cut-off grade – 0,5g/MT;
• Minimal thickness of an ore body – 5 m; if the thickness of an ore body is less than 5 m, is should be included in the reserves estimation contour based on the minimum GT value of 2,5 m*g/MT;
• Maximum thickness of the inter-mineral empty strata of 5 m. 

The following assets were identified

Reserves are recognized as explored and prepared for open pit mining.

Reserves growth prospects
The potential to find additional ore in the ore field is primarily along strike or in deeper parts of the known ore bodies. In addition, there are surface near zones and geochemical anomalies that are not yet investigated in full.
A program to carry out these investigations has been elaborated. In accordance with the geological exploration plan, approved by "Tyvanedra”, the growth of C1 + C2 reserves  is estimated to be in the order of 5.7 tonnes. The exploration plan is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Production
Currently, the construction of a heap leaching plant at the Tardan deposit is conducted. The production capacity of the plant is expected to reach100 ktonnes of ore per year at an average ore grade of 9.4 g / t. The recovery is expected to be 58%.

In the period from 2007 to 2011, ore containing 2,528 kg of gold was produced at the Tardan deposit. Of these, 741 kg were recovered in the process plant, the remaining 1,787 kg ore has been stored to be used in the heap leaching plant.

The company "Tardan-Gold" has a modern analytical laboratory.