AMN - LIBERIA: Commercial production starts at New Liberty

Aureus Mining has declared commercial production at the New Liberty gold mine in Liberia. Gold Production at New Liberty exceeded 9000oz during February 2016.

-          Commercial production has been declared effective from March 1

-          Total gold production in excess of 9000 oz during February 2016

-          Year to date production is more than 14,000 oz of gold

-          Gold recovery levels increased to 90% by end February 2016

-          Process Plant performance is now in line with original design specifications and management expectations.

The process plant is now operating in line with both design specifications and management expectations.

During the past 60 days of operations the process plant has achieved an average of 88% of design throughput capacity. During February 2016, plant throughput totalled 90,099 tonnes of ore milled, resulting in the recovery of more than 9000oz of gold, with operating recovery levels of 90% achieved by the end of February. The value of the gold produced prior to commercial production being declared will be deducted from the capitalised construction costs of New Liberty, rather than recorded as revenue.

Following the declaration of Commercial Production, the operations team will continue to focus on fine tuning the process plant to further improve its overall operational performance.

The New Liberty process plant has now processed 503,286 tonnes of ROM fresh ore and lower grade oxide material. Gold production achieved for the calendar year is currently over 14,000 oz. To date there have been 25 shipments of gold doré from New Liberty for smelting and refining at the MKS PAMP refinery in Switzerland, resulting in sales of approximately 31,500 oz of gold.

Overall plant performance levels have continued to increase towards design specifications.

Following the introduction of a fresh carbon supply into the CIL tanks of the process plant, overall gold recovery has continued to improve in February and is now at 90%, which is in line with overall plant operating specifications.

Mining operations at New Liberty continue to progress, with ROM stockpiles currently standing at 70,844 tonnes of fresh ore at a grade of 2.59 grams/tonne and oxide and transitional stockpiles standing at 81,881 tonnes at a grade of 1.32 grams/tonne gold.

Aureus continues to work towards finalising an updated mine plan for the project, and MonuRent, the New Liberty mining fleet provider, has purchased and shipped to Liberia five new 100 tonnes capacity Komatsu HD785 rigid haul trucks and one PC1250 excavator.

Aureus Mining president and CEO David Reading says: “I am pleased by the increased gold production levels we have achieved throughout January and February this year. Following a significant amount of hard work by our operations team, focusing upon ramping up plant performance and gold production levels towards design capacity, we are delighted to be able to announce resolution of the commissioning issues at New Liberty and to declare Commercial Production.

www.aureus-mining.com

News courtesy of International Mining