The Rodnikova deposit is close to Tran-Siberian's Asacha gold mine and is estimated to contain 1 million ounces of gold with an average grade of 5.3g/t, according to the mineral resources report approved by the Russian State Commission for Reserves.

Trans-Siberian is busy devising the exploration field work programme to assess the full potential of the deposit and options to potentially start early-stage production. 

It said it would look at the suitability of using the existing processing techniques and plant at Asacha for Rodnikova's ore, as it believed the two deposits had similar geology, mineralogy and metallurgy.

CEO Alexander Dorogov said the company was now no longer a single asset miner and Rodnikova was seen as a "complementary asset" that fitted into its epithermal deposits portfolio and had potential geographic and operational synergies with Asacha.

Trans-Siberian's shares (AIM:TSG) were trading at 57.88p (US75.28c) Tuesday, 60.8% higher than six months ago.