AmmLeach Patent Granted in the USA

18 April 2013

Alexander Mining plc

('Alexander' or the 'Company')

Overarching AmmLeach® Patent Granted in the United States of America for Method for Ammoniacal Leaching

Alexander is delighted to report that it has received notification from the United States Patent and Trademark Office that its MetaLeach Limited subsidiary has been granted a Patent for a Method of Ammoniacal Leaching, patent number 8,388,729. The patent has a standard term of twenty years from the effective date of July 11, 2008 (being the date of original filing). The patent is the U.S. National Phase of PCT/AU2008/001027, filed Jul. 11, 2008, which in turn claims priority to Australian application number AU2007903815 filed Jul. 13, 2007 and AU2007906262 filed Nov. 15, 2007.

Martin Rosser, Chief Executive Officer, said: "The grant of our US patent for a Method for Ammoniacal Leaching, which is the overarching AmmLeach® patent in our intellectual property portfolio, is tremendous news. Given its status, it encompasses all possible application in the AmmLeach® patent family. Moreover, the USA is arguably the leading country in the world for patent applications and is noted for its rigorous process in determining the granting of patents."

In accordance with the present invention, the Method of Ammoniacal Leaching patentprovides for a method for leaching one or more target metals from an ore, the method comprising the method steps of: curing the ore to be leached through the application of an aqueous solution of a curing agent at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature, producing a cured ore; leaching the cured ore at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature through the application of an ammonium carbonate solution containing free ammonia, producing a pregnant leach solution; and passing the pregnant leach solution to a means for metals recovery.

ENDS

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