The Elvenei project is located in the Chaunsky area of the Chukotka Autonomous Oblast, 540km southwest of the town of Pevek, a largest Arctic seaport in the area, Pevek. It is 15km off the Pevek-Bilibino automobile road, 110km west of Bilibino, the site of a nuclear power station (43MW).
Russian exploration to date (1968 to 1992) has defined a gold-mineralized system of quartz veins and linear silicified breccias in Triassic sandstones, shales and siltstones intruded by a granitoid dome and a late Cretaceous complex of independent small intrusions forming a ring dike structure. Early work in the area concentrated on tungsten mineralization in the contact metamorphosed sediments adjacent to the intrusives. Subsequent work focused on the gold mineralization, with a number of trenches and core holes being completed. Mineralogy of the mineralized bodies is simple. The main ore minerals are pyrite and arsenopyrite. Other sulfides present include antimonite.
Six potential mineralized bodies have been outlined at Elvenei, not all of which have seen systematic trenching and drilling. Summary assay results from mineralized body #1 are as follows:
Thickness, metres
Au grade, g/t
Trench 201
4
15.7
Trench 202
1.5
11.7
Trench 203
1
12.6
Hole 269
1.7
12.4
Holes 90 and 92
0.8
17.8
Trench 210
1.1
4.4
Average on mineralised body #1
1.7
13.2
Mineralized bodies #2 and #3 have the following thicknesses and average grades: #2 - thickness of 0.5m, and gold at 12.2 g/t; #3 - thickness of 1.0m, and gold at 19.0 g/t. Mineralized body #2 has been traced for 600m on strike, and mineralized body #3, 500m on strike. Mineralized bodies #4, #5and #6 average gold grades of 18.0g/t, 5.9g/t and 13.0 g/t, with strike lengths of 500m, 400m and 500m respectively.
Historical projections of resources in the known Elvenei project mineralized bodies and the surrounding area by the Russian investigators are approximately 4.5 million tonnes at a gold grade of approximately 13.2g/t.
