30th Jan 2009 12:14
Berkeley Mineral Resources PLC
AGM Statement
At today's Annual General Meeting of Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc (the "Company"), the AIM quoted mining company with operations in Zambia, the Chairman, Masoud Alikhani made the following comments:
"I am pleased to report on a successful year for Berkeley during which the Company made significant progress at its Kabwe dump treatment project in Zambia where production is expected to commence in quarter four of this year.
"Since the end of the financial year, a programme of sampling the dump material has been completed, returning higher metal values than had been anticipated, with grades of up to 8.61p.c. zinc and 4.54p.c. lead. This work showed that the dumps also contain minor amounts of copper, manganese and silver which may be recoverable and thus provide additional smelter credits.
"I am pleased to say that these results confirm that the Kabwe project, with its low cost base, is viable even at current metal prices. We are now in a position to move forward and are in the process of negotiating off-take arrangements prior to commencing extraction of the dump material for processing.
"As I have previously indicated, the Kabwe project should be cash generative as soon as concentrate shipments commence later this year, and once bedded down, it is expected to extract and process around 50,000 tonnes of material per month initially and is forecast to reach 100,000 tonnes per month by mid 2010.
"In line with our objective of broadening the Company's operating base we have also started early stage negotiations with several parties that could result in the acquisition of further projects".
All resolutions were duly passed.
30 January 2009
For further information please contact:
|
Masoud Alikhani |
020 7408 1181 |
|
Berkeley Mineral Resources Plc |
|
|
Michael Padley / Ron Marshman |
020 7011 9411 |
|
Lothbury Financial |
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Berkeley Mineral Resources