Last checked at 9 Oct 2009 08:11
Hambledon Mining plc
("the Company")
Production Update
09 October 2009
The Company reports its production for the three months from 1 July 2009 to 30 September 2009.
| July | August | September | Total | ||||||
| Milled tonnes (dry) | 66,243 | 40,435 | 54,700 | 161,378 | |||||
| Gold grade (g/t) | 1.24 | 1.27 | 1.30 | 1.27 | |||||
| Contained gold (gms) | 81,813 | 51,352 | 71,110 | 204,275 | |||||
| Contained gold (oz) | 2,630 | 1,651 | 2,286 | 6,568 | |||||
| Gold recovery % | 82.9% | 80.2% | 75.3% | 79.5% | |||||
| Recovered gold (oz) | 2,189 | 1,324 | 1,720 | 5,224 | |||||
| Recovered silver (oz) | 5,054 | 3,263 | 3,785 | 12,103 |
As previously disclosed with the interim results, production in August and September was adversely affected by repairs and maintenance of the jaw crusher and ball mills. In total, 17 days were lost. Thereafter, the mill throughput for the remainder of September was slowly increased and, although the average rate was lower than planned, the plant is now operating at what is expected to be the maximum rate, some 15% - 20% above design capacity.
The new excavator arrived on site in early August and three additional mining trucks have been hired to work with this machine. Although smaller than the existing Hitachi excavators, the mining capacity of the fleet has increased significantly which will allow the mine to keep pace with the increased plant capacity.
The recovery, at 79.5% for the quarter, was lower than anticipated. To determine the cause of this, an external consultant was engaged to conduct a thorough review of the entire metallurgical process. This resulted in a series of recommendations to improve the overall recovery that are in the process of implementation.
Enquiries:
| Hambledon Mining: |
| Telephone +44 (0)20 7233 1462 |
| Fairfax I.S. PLC: |
| Telephone +44 (0)207 598 5368 |
| Nominated Adviser and Broker |
| Ewan Leggat |
Copyright Business Wire 2009