Perth, June 30, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian-based gold producer Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX:FML) is pleased to provide an update on recent activities, including record gold production of 19,226 ounces from the Company's recently completed 45 day milling campaign, its eighth overall.
Solid progress is also being made on the Three Mile Hill plant refurbishment programme, where several key milestones have already been achieved. The project remains on schedule with commissioning to be completed during December 2009.
Focus is also pleased to report that it has commenced resource extension exploration drilling at the Company's Coolgardie Gold Project, following the mobilisation of a diamond rig to site.
Key Highlights:
Production
- Eighth milling campaign now completed ~ most successful to date with 19,226 ounces produced.
- Total production for the financial year totals 41,401 ounces.
- 10,000 ounces delivered into forward hedging contract ~ 9,378 ounces hedged ounces left to deliver.
Three Mile Hill Refurbishment
- Three Mile Hill plant refurbishment continues on schedule with several key milestones already achieved ~ remains on target for re-commissioning
December 2009.
Exploration Drilling
- Diamond drill rig mobilised and drilling now commenced at the Coolgardie Gold Project ~ initially targeting extensions to Perseverance and Countess Deposits.
- Campaign aimed at delivering additional Resources and Reserves to underpin increased production capacity from 1.2Mtpa Three Mile Hill gold processing plant.
Production Update
On 22 June, Focus completed its eighth milling campaign since production began in April 2008. The recent campaign started on 1 May 2009 and concluded on 22 June for a total of 45 effective milling days.
The milling campaign was very successful, netting a record 19,226 ounces of gold with recoveries exceeding 95%. Of the 19,226 ounces produced in the campaign, 10,000 ounces were delivered into the Company's forward gold contract commitments at an average price of A$976 /oz. A further 9,595 ounces were sold into the spot market at an average price of A$1,175 /oz.
Gold holdings currently total 987 ozs, which will be sold at spot shortly. Importantly, there are only 9,378 ounces left to deliver under existing delivery commitments, with the hedging book to be closed out during the next milling campaign, which is expected to commence in early September 2009.
Over 70,000 tonnes of ore currently stockpiled at surface was unable to be processed during this milling campaign. This further reinforces the Company's strategy to commission the 1.2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) capacity Three Mile Hill processing plant.
Table 1 - Production table
---------------------------------------- Milling TOTAL Campaign FY 09----------------------------------------Head Grade Grams Au/tonne 7.33 5.42Gold Produced (oz) 19,226 41,401Gold Sold (oz) 19,595 42,404Average Price (A$/oz) A$1,073 A$1,047----------------------------------------
Three Mile Hill Refurbishment
Work on refurbishment of the 1.2Mtpa Three Mile Hill treatment plant is running on schedule with excellent progress made on a number of fronts. Several key milestones have been achieved as well as significant progress on a range of critical items:
- Old primary, secondary and tertiary crushers have been removed;
- Foundations for new primary crusher completed;
- Work is well advanced on Fine Ore Bin rebuild;
- The Ball Mill has been removed from old foundations which have been demolished and refurbishment of the mill is underway;
- Work has begun on the new Ball Mill foundations;
- Old elution and carbon regeneration circuits and gold room removed to make way for new installation construction of which has commenced; and
- Sand blasting and coating of all tanks well advanced.
Upcoming work will include:
- Pouring of concrete for the new ball mill plinths ~ to take place in July;
- Delivery of the three new crushers for installation;
- Installation of new elution and carbon regeneration circuits and gold room;
- Refurbishment of all tank agitators; and
- Minor repairs to gear boxes and electric motors.
Exploration Drilling commences
A 5,000m exploration campaign has commenced to target extensions of Perseverance, Countess, Empress and Tindals, which the Company considers underexplored.
The first phase of drilling is taking place at the Company's producing Countess Deposit (see Figure 1 below) and will consist of underground diamond drilling designed to test priority areas immediately surrounding the deposit. These areas are considered highly likely to contain additional highgrade resources along strike.
At Perseverance, drilling will follow up from excellent results achieved in a 9-hole drilling programme conducted earlier this year, which included intercepts of:
- 4.93m @ 31.66g/t
- 3.17m @ 27.84g/t
- 5.01m @ 14.98g/t. and
- 1.47m @ 19.85g/t;
An electromagnetic geophysical anomaly, located 100m north of the existing Perseverance deposit will also be targeted in this phase of exploration.
Planning work has also commenced on The Mount project where a 140m exploration decline will be established to intersect known mineralised structures. Discussions are currently ongoing with local contractors and permitting is underway. Once finalised, mobilisation to The Mount is expected in September 2009.
Summary
Focus is aiming to achieve substantially increased gold production in the coming years, with the refurbishment and re-commissioning of the Company's Three Mile Hill processing plant to underpin production of 80,000 ounces in 2010 and +100,000 ounces from 2011 onwards.
Focus' Chief Executive Officer, Campbell Baird, commenting on the Company's record gold output from its latest milling campaign said: "We are now very much on track in terms of the mill refurbishment, so to have record production output at a time when so much else is going on internally is extremely pleasing.
"Getting the Three Mile Hill mill up-and-running is obviously a major priority right now but we have been very careful not to let this get in the way of our core business, which is to produce gold," he added. Mr Baird also said that the commencement of exploration drilling at the project was very important: "There is a strong belief here at Focus that we have only scratched the surface within the Tindals area and recent successful drilling highlights the potential for additional resources to be found," said Mr Baird.
"We have a vision for the Coolgardie Gold Project which would see Focus becoming a significant mining house - this vision rests on the fact that we are able to develop and grow our Resource and Reserve base in the lead up to the commissioning of Three Mile Hill.
"We believe that the quality of our landholdings is such that with the extensive exploration programmes we have planned, we will be able to do just this," added Mr Baird.
About Focus Minerals Ltd
With over 3.8Moz of Mineral Resource, Focus Minerals Limited (ASX:FML) has a highly strategic portfolio of assets across Australia's two leading gold producing districts – the Kalgoorlie/Coolgardie belt and Laverton – and the financial muscle to continue to unlock further potential for growth.
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