MOSCOW, February 5 (RIA Novosti) - Polyus Zoloto [RTS: PLZL] forecasts a 56% year-on-year rise in 2006 IFRS earnings from gold sales to $739 million, Russia's largest gold miner said Monday.
The company's gold resource base grew in 2006 by 70% to 3,000 metric tons as a result of additional prospecting of the Natalkinskoye deposit in the Far East's Magadan Region.
Gold production gained 17% during the reporting period, to reach 37.8 metric tons (1.2 million troy ounces).
Polyus Zoloto accounts for around 20% of national gold output. In 2004 the output was around 33.75 metric tons (1 million troy ounces), and is expected to rise to about 100 tons (3 million troy ounces) per year by 2010, making it one of the world's top five producers of the precious metal.
The company's assets include gold deposits in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Territory, Irkutsk Region and Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and the Magadan Region.
