The Voskhod deposit consists of one large lens of massive to disseminated chromite with up to 9 smaller pods or footwall protrusions. It is a totally “blind” deposit, lying as it does at depths of 98 to 440 m with a north-easterly dip of 28o.
Located 7 km NNE of Khromtau, the Voskhod deposit lies within a layered ultramafic complex, referred to as the Kempirsayskiy Massif, together with up to 80 other deposits discovered since 1936. This massif is 82km long in a NNE direction and covers an area of 920km2. The host rocks to the deposit have been subjected to hydrothermal alteration and now consist of serpentinites and serpentinised dunites.
The results of a total of Oriel’s 14,921m of HQ diamond and some 57,960m pre-Oriel ownership drilling have been incorporated into the resource estimation completed by SRK in May 2006.
In order to generate mining reserves, SRK applied 88% stope recovery and 65 dilution to the resources. Hence reserves are estimated to be 17.4Mt at a grade of 43.7% Cr2O3. These reserves suggest that mine production can be sustained at 700,000 tonnes per annum (“tpa”) for a period of 25 years.
The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Indicated and Inferred NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources calculated on a 20% Cr2O3 cut off are summarised below;
