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TRANS-SIBERIAN GOLD PLC ASACHA GOLD PROJECT KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA Asacha Hill looking south along the main vein system ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Final Report ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ASACHA GOLD PROJECT KAMCHATKA, RUSSIA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT MDS MINING & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LTD November 2004 MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Final Report ___________________________________________________________________________________________ FOREWORD This Environmental Assessment for the Asacha Gold Project located in the Kamchatka Region of Eastern Russia was prepared by MDS Mining & Environmental Services (MDS) for: Trans-Siberian Gold plc Church Barn Old Farm Business Centre Church Road Toft Cambridge CB3 7RF United Kingdom All environmental and other factual information on the Asacha Gold Project used in the preparation of this document was provided by Trans-Siberian Gold in reports commissioned by them (and by others who have had an interest in the Asacha deposit) from a number of Russian and international consultants. The original sources of this information are referenced at the appropriate places in this document. The information has been accepted in good faith by MDS and has not been independently validated by MDS, who accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the information provided. Dr Mark Dodds-Smith Director MDS Mining & Environmental Services Ltd 2 Aldeby Hall Cottages Aldeby Beccles Suffolk NR34 0AJ United Kingdom 31 March 2004 (revised November 2004) MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Contents Final Report ____________________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Location 1.3 Permitting and other regulatory requirements in Russia 1.4 Environmental Assessment methodology 1.5 Environmental standards 1.6 Health and safety management 1.7 Consideration of alternatives 1.8 Scoping, public and statutory consultations and the identification of key issues 2. BASELINE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 2.1 Context 2.2 Sources of information 2.3 Climate and meteorology 2.4 Geology, seismic and volcanic activity and hydrogeology 2.5 Surface water resources 2.6 Fisheries 2.7 Air quality 2.8 Soils and vegetation 2.9 Wildlife and nature conservation 2.10 Socio-economics 2.11 Cultural heritage 3. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 3.1 Site description 3.2 Access road 3.3 Mining 3.4 Processing 3.5 Tailings disposal 3.6 Waste management 3.7 Transport links 3.8 Power supply 3.9 Water supply 3.10 Site water management and treated effluent discharge 3.11 Atmospheric emissions 3.12 Employment 3.13 Construction schedule MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Contents Final Report ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION MEASURES 4.1 Summary of predicted impacts 4.2 Impacts on groundwater resources 4.3 Impacts on surface water resources and fisheries 4.4 Impacts on air quality 4.5 Impacts on soils, vegetation and land-use 4.6 Impacts on wildlife and nature conservation 4.7 Socio-economic impacts 4.8 Impacts on cultural heritage 4.9 Impacts arising from unforeseen circumstances 4.10 Cumulative impacts 5. HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 5.1 Background 5.2 Occupational health and safety 5.3 Environmental management 6. CONCEPTUAL CLOSURE AND REHABILITATION PLAN 6.1 Objectives 6.2 Implementation 6.3 Financial considerations MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Executive Summary Final Report ___________________________________________________________________________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION Project details Trans-Siberian Gold plc (TSG) is a UK company established with the objective of acquiring and developing gold deposits in Russia. TSG currently owns 90.05% of the Russian company ZAO Trevozhnoye Zarevo (TZ), which has held mining and exploration licences covering the Asacha deposit in Kamchatka since 1994. Asacha is a high grade epithermal gold deposit with a mineral resource currently defined as 909,000 tonnes grading 22.2 g/t Au. Between 2000, when TSG acquired a controlling interest in TZ, and 2004, TSG commissioned additional technical and economic studies culminating in the production, by the South African company MDM Ltd, of a full Bankable Feasibility Study in March 2004. The MDM Bankable Feasibility Study is based upon a mineable reserve of 934,000 tonnes grading 16.1 g/t Au and 31.4 g/t Ag with an additional inferred resource of 199,000 tonnes grading 14.9 g/t Au and 38.2 g/t Ag. The mine will be an underground operation with gold/silver recovery by conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach techniques. The nominal mining and processing rate is 204,000 tonnes per annum giving a mine life of approximately 6 years. With construction, other pre-production activities and final decommissioning and rehabilitation, the total project life will be approximately 8 years. Location The Kamchatka peninsula covers an area of some 470,000 km2 in Russia’s Far East (RFE) between the Sea of Okhotsk to the west and the Bering Strait to the east. The Asacha deposit is located within the Yelizovo administrative district in the south-eastern part of Kamchatka, at approximate latitude 52o16’ longitude 157o20’, some 190 km due south-west of the regional capital of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. The nearest settlement to Asacha is the village of Termalniy, some 115 km to the north. Access to the site currently is by a combination of all weather road and rough track from Termalniy. Termalniy is linked by asphalt road to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. i MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Executive Summary Final Report ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Permitting procedures Russian permitting procedures encompass two distinct phases – project initiation (which essentially covers project development and construction) and operation. Russian practice identifies four stages in project development, roughly equivalent to the “conceptual”, “pre-feasibility”, “full feasibility” and “detailed design” stages adopted internationally. Environmental, health and safety (and other) issues are expected to be addressed during each of these stages culminating in the production of a full scale assessment of environmental impacts, known by its Russian acronym “OVOS”. Essentially, the OVOS procedure is broadly compatible with Environmental (Impact) Assessment (EIA or EA) process applied internationally and incorporates: a description of the development, a characterisation of the existing environment, impact predictions, an assessment of the significance of impacts and details of proposed mitigation measures. Statutory and public consultations are expected throughout the preparation of the OVOS. Once construction has been completed, operational control is exercised through a system administered by the regional authorities (sometimes known as a system of “ecological passports”). These controls set agreed limits for emissions, discharges, waste arisings and define environmental actions required of the operator. The controls, which can be reviewed at intervals ranging from 1-5 years, also form the technical basis for the annual payment of fees (taxes) by the operator to the local authorities. EIA methodology An OVOS prepared by the Russian institute VNIPI was completed in accordance with the methodology required by the permitting process in Russia. TSG has indicated an intention to secure project finance for at least part of the estimated US$54 million capital cost of developing the Asacha deposit from international financial institutions. These institutions will likely require the Bankable Feasibility Study to be supported by an EIA prepared in accordance with internationally recognised methodologies. The Russian OVOS procedures are broadly similar in most respects to those adopted by international institutions including the World Bank Group. There are, however, a number of differences in the scope, methodology and style of the two approaches. This is not to say that one approach is necessarily superior to the other – but that it is difficult, if not impossible, to produce a single OVOS/EIA report that will satisfy both audiences. Consequently, in 2004, TSG commissioned MDS Mining & Environmental Services Ltd ii MDS Mining & Environmental Services November 2004 Asacha Gold Project – Environmental Assessment Executive Summary Final Report ___________________________________________________________________________________________ (MDS) to produce an EIA compatible with international expectations to support the MDM Bankable Feasibility Study. This EIA has been prepared in parallel with the OVOS and, whereas the OVOS is intended to fulfil the requirements of permitting, the EIA is intended to fulfil the requirements of project financing. The EIA draws heavily on much of the OVOS report (and other parts of the VNIPI feasibility study). Accordingly, the substance of this EIA is entirely consistent with the OVOS report. Environmental standards Since the 1970s Russia has developed a very extensive system of environmental