22nd Mar 2007 14:30
Frontier Mining Ltd22 March 2007 Frontier Mining Ltd ("Frontier" or "the Company") Naimanjal Complex - Pilot Production Update Frontier Mining Ltd. today provides an operational update for the NaimanjalComplex to the year end 2006. The Naimanjal Complex covers 170 km2 withinnortheast Kazakhstan and is comprised of the Naimanjal gold/silver mine, sixidentified satellite prospects and more than 100 exploration targets. The PilotProduction license runs for the period of September 2005 to December 2007. During 2007 Frontier will complete its commitments under the Pilot ProductionLicense and has made applications to extend the mineable tonnage allowed underthis license in order to move to a full Commercial Production license. Gold Production and Sales Since commencing production under its Pilot Production License in September2005, Frontier has stacked 461,957 tonnes of ore delivering 11,644 ounces ("oz")of gold and 216,080 oz of silver to the heap leach pads. This has provided8,615 oz of recoverable gold and 86,422 oz of recoverable silver, equating to10,416 oz of recoverable gold equivalent. To the year end 2006 Frontier has produced 5,447 oz of gold, which is belowestimates previously communicated to the market, and 10,948 oz of silver withsales of 5,125 oz of gold and 9,401 oz of silver, generating total revenue ofUS$3,203,967. Prior to the end of 2006, 322 oz of gold and 1,547 oz of silverhad been delivered for sale and were subsequently sold in January, generatingUS$219,557 in revenue. The average price received was US$611.68 per oz for goldand US$13.20 per oz for silver. Production was lower than expected due to theonset of winter storms causing a halt to stacking and a slow down in circuitrecoveries. Such winter conditions are always a risk to mining in the Naimanjalarea and plans are being prepared to improve Frontier's production capabilitiesin severe winter conditions. As at 31 December 2006, the total recoverable metal classified as "in circuit"was 2,752 oz of gold and 74,928 oz of silver. 2007 Production Forecast Frontier is forecasting production of 15,000 oz of gold and 50,000 oz of silverin 2007. Behre Dolbear have undertaken a full review of the Naimanjal miningand processing operation and their report is due out in April 2007. This willinclude an update to the resource and reserve figures for Naimanjal. Dr RobertCameron, formerly Worldwide Director of Geostatistics and Mine Planning withBehre Dolbear, joined Frontier in January 2007 (see announcement of 7 February2007) as Vice President of Technical Services and has been working closely withBehre Dolbear to incorporate their findings in to the report. Baritovy Pilot Production A Pilot Production License has been granted to the Baritovy satellite deposit, 9km from the existing Naimanjal mine. 2007 plans are to transport an initialsmall tonnage of ore from Baritovy to Naimanjal for stacking and processing,while further exploration is undertaken to further define and extend thedeposit. Brian Savage, CEO of Frontier Mining, comments "The Naimanjal Complex is ahighly mineralised commercial discovery area of about 170 square kilometres andthe existing mine represents a small part of that area. Although we did notmeet our production target in 2006, we are one of only a few gold producers onAIM, and have demonstrated in the start up phase of the Pilot Production licensethat the Naimanjal mine is commercial. We are now aiming to complete ourcommitments under the Pilot Production and are seeking formal regulatoryapproval to move to a full Commercial Production License. The addition of PilotProduction at Baritovy is the next step in Frontier's overall plans to continueincreasing production at Naimanjal through 2008 and beyond." For further enquiries, please contact: Frontier Mining Ltd Brian Savage +44 (0) 20 7898 9019Parkgreen Communications Cathy Malins/Annabel Leather +44 (0) 20 7851 7480 About Frontier Mining Ltd: Frontier Mining Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development company that wasincorporated in the state of Delaware, USA, on 5 August 1998 for the purpose ofexploring and developing gold and copper deposits in the Republic of Kazakhstan.Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Frontier locates, evaluates,acquires, explores and develops mineral properties. Frontier has two licenses owned by its wholly owned subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.They are the Naimanjal exploration and mining licence, held by FML Kazakhstan,and the Baltemir exploration licence, held by Baltemir LLP. Frontier has oneproducing gold mine, Naimanjal; one pre-feasibility stage gold project,Koskuduk; and one exploration stage gold prospect, Baltemir. Frontier also has one potential copper porphyry deposit with associated gold andmolybdenum, Baitimir; and several copper/gold prospects along a 25-km trendincluding both VMS and porphyry types. Metallurgical tests on its Beschoku andYubileiny copper projects confirm the oxide copper ore is amenable to extractionusing low cost SX-EW technology. Frontier shares are traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.Frontier has 132,979,597 ordinary shares issued and 6,057,091 outstandingoptions and warrants, giving 139,026,688 fully diluted ordinary shares. Further company information may be accessed at the Frontier Mining Ltd. websiteat: www.frontiermining.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
FML.L