FML.L Regulatory News (FML)

11 Dec 2006 07:01

Frontier Mining Ltd11 December 2006 11 December 2006 Frontier Mining Ltd ("Frontier" or "the Company") Commissioning of New Carbon Circuit at the Naimanjal Mine, Kazakhstan Frontier is pleased to report that it has commissioned a new carbon circuit atits Naimanjal Mine in north eastern Kazakhstan. In conjunction with this, BehreDolbear & Company (USA), Inc. (Behre Dolbear) completed a comprehensive reviewof the performance of the existing Merrill Crowe system and recommended minorupgrades to operate the Merrill Crowe circuit in combination with theintroduction of the carbon circuit. Together, the Company believes that thiswork will accelerate the extraction of gold and silver from the heap leachsolutions. The circuit design utilises five in-line carbon columns capable of handling aflow rate of 140 cubic metres of solution per hour. Each column contains 1.5tonnes of carbon. Gold and silver are stripped from the carbon with a 1.5 tonnepressurised strip circuit. The gold and silver are then recovered on stainlesssteel cathodes in an electrolytic (electro-winning) circuit. The circuit wasdesigned for the Naimanjal mine after conducting a series of laboratory testsusing Norit carbon for gold and silver adsorption. The carbon columns were placed into operation on 1 November 2006 as the primaryprecipitation circuit. The associated pressurised strip circuit andelectro-winning facilities underwent water and temperature testing from 2November 2006 to 5 November 2006 and were first used for production of gold andsilver on 9 November 2006. During the month of November, the new carbon circuitachieved 88% recovery of the gold and 70% recovery of the silver from the heapleach solution. Brian Savage, CEO of Frontier commented, "We believe that the new carbon circuitand the improvements to the Merrill Crowe circuit will enable Frontier toenhance and accelerate the extraction of gold and silver contained in the heapleach solutions, and anticipate that it will improve our production rates andensure that we will hit our revised production targets." Enquiries: Frontier Mining Ltd Brian Savage +44 (0) 20 7898 9019Parkgreen Communications Cathy Malins / Annabel Leather +44 (0) 20 7493 3713 About Frontier Frontier Mining Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development company that wasincorporated in the state of Delaware, USA, on August 5, 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 6,197,091 outstandingoptions and warrants, giving 139,176,688 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 Exchange