Solidcore, the company formerly known as Polymetal, told Mining Journal that it was seeking to grow its business in gold and base metals, following its divestment of its Russian assets.

The miner, which previously held nine projects across Russia and Kazakhstan, now holds two established projects in Kazakhstan, Varvara and Kyzyl, and is developing a further one, Ertis Pox. It is headquartered in Astana, the capital. It is eying a production of 1Mgeoz by 2029.

 Polymetal sold off its Russian assets at what was considered a bargain price, to avoid the threat of nationalisation.

The miner, which was previously listed in London, was caught in a geopolitical bind, facing pressure of US sanctions on one side, and the threat of expropriation in Russia on the other.

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It was looking to sell its Russian assets since they were placed under US sanctions in 2023 in response to Moscow sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Looking ahead

Last year the company posted EBITDA of $439million. However, it is planning to invest up to $1billion over the next five years to grow its resource base.

Mostly this will be spent on developing Ertis Pox, which is an incredibly interesting project for the company, and indeed, for Kazakhstan.

Here the company plans to allocate $800m of its funds over the next five years. It envisions Ertis Pox as becoming a large-scale and high tech full cycle pressure oxidation plant for refractory ore processing. It will have capacity to not just take the 120,000tpa of the company's ore from Kyzyl, but 100,000tpa of other producers',  the chief technology officer Maxim Nazimok, said.

It is expected to be commissioned and ready for start up by H1 2028.

"We will have capacity in five years time after building and ramping up the Ertis Pox, and that would give us quite a bit of flexibility - both in terms of searching for additional refractory resources in our portfolio, and also processing other people's [materials] as well, because there's quite a few refractory deposits in Kazakhstan, which cannot make money at the moment because they don't have a an economic downstream processing [stream]," Nazimok told Mining Journal.

Growth outside

However, as Nazimok emphasised, Solidcore has an ambitious growth strategy.

"We are actively looking at additional acquisition targets in Kazakhstan itself," Nazimok said.

"We know very well how to operate there. And we would be very keen to expand on Kazakhstan as well, apart from Ertis Pox. (....) diversification is an important element of the strategy. It's both the country diversification and the commodity diversification as well. So we are prepared to look at more jurisdictions in Central Asia," he added, pointing to Saudi Arabia, Oman, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as being of interest, before emphasising that the company is not seeking operating assets.

"It's important to emphasise that we are not looking to acquire operating assets in neither in Kazakhstan, nor in other jurisdictions; we try to find assets which are already somewhat well explored, so at least at resource-stage. But we really prefer to complete the exploration. Then we can establish the reserves and build mines ourselves". 

Within its own projects, it is projecting an uplift in output - from 475,000 gold equivalent oz (geoz), to 520,000geoz by 2028.

However, the company is eying a more ambitious target of growth, seeking to grow resources to 6Mgeoz pa by 2029. This combines 1Mgeoz in East Kazakhstan, with projects Nazarovskaya, Abda, Tarbagatai and Kalba as well as eight projects in central Kazakhstan, which together could add 5Mgeoz pa to the resource of the company by 2029.

Markets

The company is looking to list outside of the AIX, where it currently is.

"We need to grow, and even for the potential relisting in London, we need to present a much more compelling story than just a company which happens to have two very nice and stable operations in Kazakh, it would not excite the London market," Nazimok admitted.

"Relisting in London is not an objective in and of itself," he added.

"It has to serve some purpose being, in this case, the restoration of the full valuation and full shareholder value. Because obviously we appreciate that many investors who have invested in what was Polymetal and is now Solidcore have suffered, originally from the war, and currently from the fact that liquidity in AIX is just not sufficient for the market to be fully efficient," Nazimok said.

Solidcore was trading at $2.9/share on AIX on 17 June.