TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - Russian-owned miner White Tiger Gold, which listed on the TSX on Friday, aims to produce one-million ounces yearly of the precious metal by 2016, CEO Geoffrey Cowley said on the last day of 2010.

The company was formed when SL Resources, a private Canadian firm, was bought by Russian millionaire Max Finskiy’s Dalsvetmet in a reverse takeover earlier in December.

“We want to be producing 200 000 oz/y in the next couple of years,” Cowley told Mining Weekly Online in a telephone interview.

“Our aim to get this up and running very quickly,” he added.

White Tiger owned the Savkino gold mine in Siberia, just 15 km north of the Chinese border, which produced about 17 500 oz in 2010, according to the company.

The mine is small, with 113 000 oz of proven and probable reserves as at September 1, but there is potential for expansion at the openpit deposit.

Other assets included the Nasedkino deposit is located in Eastern Siberia, 440 km northeast from the city of Chita, which contains indicated and inferred resources of 280 000 oz of gold.

White Tiger would produce more than 20 000 oz from Savkino in 2011, lifting this to 150 000 oz to 200 000 oz with production from Nasedkino over the next two years, Cowley said.

The company also owns the Northern Ontario gold assets of SL Resources, located in Leonard Township, approximately 100 km north of Sudbury.

Cowley said White Tiger would consider acquisitions “as and when they arise", but this was not currently a priority.

“Our immediate focus is in developing the White Tiger assets as they are now,” he affirmed.

POLYUS COMPARISON

Cowley said that Finskiy, who is White Tiger’s chairperson, played a major role in the formation of Russia’s biggest gold producer, Polyus Gold, where he also is a director.

Polyus said recently it aimed to list in London in 2011, after which it would seek a merger with another major producer to form a top-three global gold miner.

Polyus is headed by Mikhail Prokhorov, who Bloomberg News said was Russia’s second richest man.

According to Cowley, White Tiger also aims to become a Russia-focused major gold producer, but he stressed the company would not compete with Polyus.

He said that White Tiger would serve as the gold vehicle of Intergeo, which was founded by Prokhorov and which Finskiy heads.

Finkskiy has been building up stakes in Canadian juniors including Century Mining and Etruscan Resources, before it was acquired by Endeavour Financial Corporation earlier in 2010.

LAST FRONTIER

Cowley, who used to run Oleg Deripaska’s SMR in Russia, said that Russia was an emerging gold producer.

“I think the power of this industry is underestimated – there is a lot of growth potential.”

“The biggest problem is infrastructure not resources,” he said, adding that Russia was “one of the last frontiers out there”.

Earlier this week, White Tiger announced it sold 24-million shares for $1 each in a private placement, increasing its issued shares to 114-million, implying a market value of $114-million for the company.

Before the placement, Intergeo indirectly owned 97% of White Tiger.

Gold was trading at $1 411/oz on Friday.

London-based Fairfax analyst John Meyer said in a year-end note “we see gold moving firmly towards a target of $1 685/oz early next year supported by forecast central bank buying activity and ongoing uncertainty in other asset classes.”