The company said it plans to increase sulphide plant throughput to 1.2 million tonnes per year by 2012 from the original design tonnage of 750,000 tonnes per year in 2009.

It expects first gold production from the Phase 2 project in mid 2009, and estimates an additional 86,000 ounces of gold to be extracted from the expanded Centralny pit at a cost of US$9.6 million.

First gold production from the underground Severny mine is expected in mid-2010, and the pre-production cost for the underground development and plant modification is estimated at US$139 million.

The new base case is expected to produce about 246,000 ounces of gold annually from the existing JORC compliant Severny measured and indicated underground resources over an initial 7 year period, Thomson Financial reported.

Initially, a total of 1.43 million ounces of gold will be produced at an estimated cash cost of US$197 per ounce, excluding taxes.

The combined Severny and Centralny sulphide underground ore reserves are 9.71 million tonnes at an average grade of 7.71 grams per tonne, containing 2.41 million ounces of gold.

Chairman Douglas Sutherland said over 80% of the Oxus’ resources are contained within the Amantaytau Goldfields project and there is significant potential to increase it further and to continue mining in excess of 300,000 ounces a year for over a decade.