AGM Statement

22 Jul 2005 10:15

Hambledon Mining PLC22 July 2005 Hambledon Mining PLC AGM Statement George Eccles, Chairman, Hambledon Mining Plc ("Hambledon" or the "Company), anAIM-listed mining and exploration company developing precious metal deposits inKazakhstan, made the following comments at today's Annual General Meeting: "The Company has made significant strides in the past year. Since acquiring thegold deposit in East Kazakhstan in 1998 we have worked hard to deliver a lowcost, self-financing operation. We successfully listed on AIM in June 2004,raising £2.5 million. We acquired further adjacent deposits last November and weraised a further £5 million in April. Apart from a small amount of local bankdebt, we believe that the project will be self financing going forward. "We recently announced the increase in the open pit resource, post the drillingprogramme, and we expect to be in a position to make a statement regarding theunderground resource shortly. Ahead of this we have a total resource of 3.5 million ounces of gold (JORC category 1.4 million). "We are currently focused on bringing the open pit into production and expect tobe in a position to start construction of the treatment plant this year, with aview to being in production in 2006. "Exploration of the additional areas we acquired in November has alreadycommenced. "The Board is very pleased with the progress made. We will be in production in2006, we have a low cost operation with significant resources identified and weare confident that additional reserves will be found. The more we look at thisdeposit, the more gold we realise it contains, and we are confident that thereis still a lot more to come from the adjacent areas." ENQUIRIES: 22nd July 2005 Hambledon Mining Plc Tel: + 44 870 111 8778Nicholas Bridgen, Chief Executive or + 7 300 733 8915 Bankside Consultants Tel: 0207 367 8888Michael Spriggs / Michael Padley About Hambledon Hambledon Mining Plc is an AIM listed mining and exploration company which hasannounced the development of an open pit project at its Sekisovskoye deposit inEast Kazakhstan, prior to the development of the larger underground resources.Initial production from the open pit will be around 30,000 ounces per year,rising to around 100,000 ounces when wholly underground ore is processed. The Group also holds the rights to and is exploring the adjacent Tserkovkalicence area, which contains the areas known as Tserkovka, Feodulikha, Area 4and Area 5. It is likely that any ore from these areas will be treated in anexpanded plant at Sekisovskoye. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange