On October 20, the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Oleksiy Petrov met with representatives of the international investment company Avellana Gold. The Company is currently processing waste dumps that were left behind by previous mining activities in order to restore the environment.

The Muzhievo deposit is the only gold deposit in Ukraine with approved reserves, allowing Ukraine to be considered a gold-mining country. The launch of the gravity plant will provide significant income to the community budget and new jobs, commented the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration Oleksiy Petrov.

"We have supported a foreign investor and the launch of a project to extract gold and polymetals at the Muzhievo deposit. The last time an enterprise was launched here was in 2005, it went bankrupt, so no production processes took place here, - said Oleksiy Petrov. "This is the only production complex that can be launched during a pandemic."

During the visit, the head of the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration saw the capacity of the gravity plant and the processing of dumps.

"The project has more of an environmental component, than a business one. The most important fact is that we will get rid of the dangerous dumps, which are almost 130 thousand tonnes, and are creating a problem for the ecological system of the region today, " said Oleksiy Petrov.

Since 2016, Avellana Gold has pursued a comprehensive strategy for the development of the underground deposit, which involves the extraction of four metals, gold, silver, lead, and zinc, and works with low grade gold ore.

"Proving our commitment to investing, in the last year and a half we built a new gravity plant that employs 30 people at the same time we were defending against raiders," said Andrii Smolin, head of the Ukrainian representative office of Avellana Gold.

The company plans to process 500,000 tonnes of ore per year and will pay more than UAH 250 million in taxes.

"The metal from our mine will be enough to produce 300,000 batteries a year and will cover the country's need for zinc imports," said Brian C. Savage, CEO of Avellana Gold.

The commissioning of the Muzhievo mine and additional investments in the exploration of new deposits in Transcarpathia will give impetus to the creation of new mining companies. For decades, such deposits have brought hundreds of millions of dollars to the economies of Romania and Slovakia.

"To preserve the region's ecology, production in Transcarpathia should be limited to concentrate production only," comments Andrii Smolin. "Nevertheless, the creation of new raw materials for the Ukrainian economy means the opportunity to restore zinc production destroyed by the war, build a vertical cycle of battery production, and restore the entire industry of hydrometallurgical production, which was stopped in the 90s."

"We are grateful to the Governor of Transcarpathia, Oleksiy Petrov, as well as to the new Office of the President, who in a short time showed support to investors and interest in creating new enterprises in the region," added Andrii Smolin.

Source