Polyus completes Verninskoye expansion, shares up Polyus is the world’s largest gold miner by reserves. (Credit: Polyus) Polyus announced on Tuesday that it has completed a $60 million expansion of the Verninskoye mill, allowing for an additional 40,000 ounces of incremental gold volumes at the mine. The mill in the Irkutsk region of Eastern Siberia has now achieved its target hourly throughput rate of 450 t/h and is currently running at an annualized capacity of 3.5 million tonnes. Sign Up for the Precious Metals Digest Sign Up The expansion included the installation of an additional crushing circuit comprising of a ball mill and two vibrating screens in the extension of the main building.