Weatherly International Plc Regulatory News (WTI)

1 Sep 2006 07:01

Weatherly International PLC01 September 2006 Early production restart for upgraded smelter 1 September 2006: AIM-quoted copper mining group Weatherly International (WTI)has brought its recently acquired smelter at Tsumeb in Namibia back online afterrefurbishment of its number one furnace ahead of schedule. The total rebuild of the furnace should bring this smelter's production up toits full design capacity of 30,000 annual tonnes of copper Weatherly announced last month that it has signed new contracts to providesupplies of copper concentrates for the smelter. This smelting material will bein addition to the concentrates from Weatherly's own operating mines in Namibia,and potentially its exploration interests in Zambia. Weatherly CEO Rod Webster said: "We're delighted to bring the furnace back intoaction ahead of schedule and look forward to building towards full capacityduring 2007 both with our own copper concentrates and those from our newsuppliers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and Zambia." The furnace at Tsumeb, Namibia, which has been totally rebuilt since Weatherlytook over control of Ongopolo's operations in July 2006, started smelting copperconcentrate again two days ahead of schedule on 29 August, with the firstblister copper produced on 1 September. The US$2.8 million funding for the smelter's major upgrade came from the US$20million cash injection that formed part of Weatherly's acquisition of theNamibian company Ongopolo Mining and Processing earlier this year. Ongopolo also has a second furnace with a capacity of approximately 80,000tonnes which requires major refurbishment and its future is currently underreview. For further information contact: John Norris, Weatherly International plc: +44 (0) 20 7917 2989 +44 (0) 7929 778 251 Sarah Samworth, First City Financial Public Relations: +44 (0) 20 7436 7486 +44 (0) 7977 276 023 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange