Focus Minerals Limited (ASX:FML) Record Milling Campaign Delivers Gold Production Of 21,900oz
Perth, Nov 9, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Gold producer Focus Minerals Limited (ASX:FML) is pleased to provide an update on activities at its Coolgardie Gold Project, including the recently completed milling campaign that has delivered record gold production of approximately 21,900 ounces subject to finalisation of calculations of gold in circuit remaining in the treatment facility.
Focus completed its current milling campaign on 1 November - its ninth since production began in April 2008 - for a total of 49 effective milling days.
The record production comes as the Company makes final preparations to move all gold processing to its 100%-owned, 1.2Mtpa Three Mile Hill gold processing facility, which is currently in the final stages of refurbishment ahead of recommissioning in December.
It also follows Focus' recent announcement of new high-grade gold intersections from drilling programs being undertaken at the Tindals Mining Centre - reinforcing the Company's belief that areas surrounding the known deposits have the potential to house additional high-grade mineralisation.
After already paying A$18.5 million for the mill refurbishment, the Company has available cash and bullion totalling A$19.8 million. The strong cash position allows Focus to aggressively ramp up drilling programmes in the area, paving the way for increases in the current Resource and Reserve estimates.
Exploration Drilling
As previously announced, a strategic 5,000m exploration campaign has been underway since June this year and is targeting extensions of Perseverance, Countess, Empress and Tindals, which the Company considers underexplored.
In the latest round of assay results, which were released last month, Focus announced significant high-grade gold intersections which included down-hole intercepts of 0.95m at 170.94g/t, 3.14m at 12.1g/t, 0.95m at 21.33g/t and 5.76m at 3.61g/t. These results have indicated that further extensions in the Perseverance orebody are likely and importantly, were outside of the current resource base and over 100 metres below the current Perseverance workings. There were also sections of visible gold encountered.
The drilling programme has so far been very successful and planning is now underway to follow up some of these excellent intersections to target further extensions of the mineralised structures.
In addition, a second rig was mobilised on 3 November and will immediately test exploration targets from surface within close proximately to existing mining operations.
Summary
Focus is aiming to achieve substantially increased gold production in the coming years, with the refurbishment and re-commissioning of the Company's 1.2 million tonne per annum 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: "This is the second consecutive record in terms of gold production so it is obviously very pleasing and provides us with valuable revenue, especially given the continuing strong gold price.
"We are now also in the final stages of bringing the Three Mile Hill mill on line, so the next couple of months are very important and an extremely busy time for us, and will culminate in first ore being processed at Three Mile Hill sometime in December," he added.
Mr Baird also said that the Company was very excited by the positive results being received from exploration drilling: "The positive results received so far from drilling have been very encouraging to say the least, and have major implications as we look to significantly grow our reserve and resource base," he said.
"We have always been very confident that the broader Tindals area would host substantial additional resources - recent results suggest this confidence is well founded and we will continue to aggressively pursue our exploration strategy over the coming months," 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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