Shares jump as Serabi Gold completes dewatering of Palito mine

Shares in AIM-listed Serabi Gold rose on Monday after the Brazil-focused gold mining and exploration company published its second operational update on mining operations at its high-grade Palito gold mine in Para state.The company reported that it had completed dewatering of the mine in January and a new mine management and technical team commenced in mid-January. The first items of mining fleet, as well as initial contract mining personnel, arrived at the site on February 15th. The company further reported that remediation of the crushing and flotation sections of the process plant were underway.Together with the completion of the mine dewatering in January 2013, the company also finalised the recruitment of an experienced mine management and technical team who will oversee all aspects of the planning, rehabilitation and underground operational mining activities at the Palito Mine. CEO: dewatering was 'first milestone' to be achievedMike Hodgson, Chief Executive Officer of Serabi Gold, said: "Dewatering the mine was the first milestone to be achieved, and being ahead of schedule has allowed the company to begin, earlier than originally planned, the next key phase of mine remediation and development."The placing of orders for long lead items and their early arrival along with the first mining contractors gives us the opportunity to commence development mining ahead of the timetable anticipated by the PEA [Palito Project] study. "I am delighted that we have been able to recruit an excellent mining management team with a collective experience in narrow vein mining of over 70 years. Their impact is already clearly being seen in the progress that we are making at Palito. Our intention remains to generate a stockpile ahead of starting up the process plant, which we still anticipate will occur during the latter part of the fourth quarter of 2013".Serabi's share price was up 4.11% to 9.50p at 12:57 on Monday.MF