Production Update

RNS Number : 4591F

Hambledon Mining PLC

09 October 2008

 

Production Update

Hambledon Mining Plc, the AIM listed gold mining company operating in Kazakhstan, is pleased to report the following production details from its Sekisovskoye mine for the three months ended 30 September 2008. 

	July	August	September	Total
Milled tonnage (dry tonnes)	55,483	35,685	70,938	162,106
Head grade (gm/t)	1.32	1.50	1.32	1.36
Contained gold (gm)	73,074	53,431	93,516	220,021
Contained gold (oz)	2,349	1,718	3,007	7,074
Recovery %	76.0	77.5	72.8	75.0
Recovered gold (oz)	1,786	1,332	2,190	5,308
Recovered silver (oz)	3,422	2,313	2,961	8,696

Comment:

The good progress made in July was interrupted in August as commissioning of the new tailings dam was delayed and other changes were made to the process plant, resulting in shut downs of the mills for a total of two weeks. The result for August was therefore disappointing but creditable in the circumstances. September confirmed the improvements which we are making, and the milling circuit in particular is now operating well. The mills have been tested for an extended period at some 10% higher than the planned capacity and will be operated at this rate continuously once the new cone crusher is commissioned in November.

The grades mined during the quarter were lower than the average expected over the life of the open pit but higher grade areas are scheduled to be accessed during the current quarter. As already mentioned in our interim results, the metallurgical recovery has been lower than the 92% indicated by test-work. Various causes have been identified and improvements have already been made which will impact on the current quarter. 

Enquiries:

Hambledon Mining plc 

Charles Zorab

[phone]

Fairfax I.S. PLC

Ewan Leggat

[phone]

 

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