CERTEJ MINE LIFE EXTENDED
January 15 2009 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMEGU
RNS Number : 6697L
European Goldfields Ltd
15 January 2009
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| Immediate release | 15 January 2009 |
+----------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
European Goldfields Limited
CERTEJ MINE LIFE EXTENDED
TOTAL GROUP RESERVES EXCEED 10 MILLION OUNCES GOLD
15 January 2009 - European Goldfields Limited (AIM: EGU / TSX: EGU) ("European
Goldfields" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an extension to the life of
mine reserves for the Certej deposit from 11 to 16 years and the acquisition of
some additional 400 square kilometres of exciting new prospecting permits in
Romania. The new reserves at Certej increase total group reserves of gold to
more than 10 million ounces.
Extension to Certej Life of Mine
New probable reserves have been defined extending the total Certej project mine
life to 16 years. The reserves are from lower grade material within the existing
open pit design and contained by historic dumps adjacent to the Certej deposit
and can be summarised as follows:
+------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+----------------------------+
| Description | Category | Tonnes | Au g/t | Au ounces | Ag g/t | Ag ounces |
+------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+----------------------------+
| In-pit lower grade material | Probable | 7,829,226 | 0.72 | 181,200 | 14.0 | 3,524,000 |
| | | | | | | |
+------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+----------------------------+
| Dumps | Probable | 6,320,190 | 0.53 | 107,700 | 8.9 | 1,802,000 |
+------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+----------------------------+
| Total | Probable | 14,149,416 | 0.64 | 288,900 | 11.7 | 5,326,000 |
+------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+----------------------------+
The existing open-pit design was optimised at a gold price of $450 per troy
ounce and, whilst the pit forms a natural limit to the mineralisation, there is
material within the pit shell that becomes economic at a gold price of $650 per
ounce. In the previous mine plan this rock reported to the waste heap.
Drilling and channel sampling of historic dumps situated around the deposit has
also defined new resources and reserves. Much of the material would have to be
moved to make space for the planned Certej open-pit.
The rock dump and the in-pit lower-grade materials will be stockpiled and fed
through the mill after the full grade ore from the pit has been treated in the
first eleven and a half years of the life.
The 0.3 million ounces Au and 5.3 million ounces Ag reserves were estimated
using mining costs defined in the Certej definitive feasibility study published
in September 2008 with an additional cost for re-handling taken into account. A
technical report detailing the extension to the life of mine will be submitted
on to the SEDAR website within 45 days of this announcement.
The Certej definitive feasibility study of September 2008 defined an annual
metal production averaging approximately 160,000 ounces of gold and 800,000
ounces of silver for the Certej project.
With the 32.8 million tonne probable reserve containing 2.1 million ounces of
gold and 12.0 million ounces of silver previously defined at Certej, the total
Certej probable reserves are 2.41 million ounces of gold and 17.3 million ounces
of silver.
European Goldfields total reserves of gold are now 10.05 million ounces.
New Prospecting Permits in Romania
The Company has acquired two new prospecting permits totalling some 454 square
kilometres. The licences cover two distinct areas. The first area forms a
westward extension to the Company's existing group of licences centred on
Certej. This western extension covers some 317 square kilometres and is adjacent
to the well-known Brad mines which have produced as much as 20 million ounces of
gold according to historic records and were operated by the Romanian state until
2006. Deposits in this geological terrain include examples of disseminated gold,
porphyry mineralisation as well as the more prolific and higher grade
epithermal deposits. The Company has also acquired raw data from an airborne
magnetic and radiometric geophysical survey which covers much of the area and
will begin processing this data in early in 2009.
The second area covers some 137 square kilometres and includes the Deva copper
gold porphyry and the Muncel - Vetel massive sulphide deposits. The Deva
porphyry was operated by the Romanian state owned mining company between 1950
and 2001. During this time it produced some 19 million tonnes of ore at a grade
of 0.7% copper. Gold grades were not recorded systematically throughout the mine
life but are indicated to be approximately 0.5 g/t gold. The porphyry is defined
to a depth of 800 metres and is one of a series of intrusives within a volcanic
complex which is completely under explored. The Muncel - Vitel area hosts known
copper, lead and zinc mineralisation in a series of stacked massive sulphide
horizons recorded as being Volcanogenic Massive Sulphides (VMS) type. The
mineralisation has been traced along more than 5 kilometres of strike length and
the area has never been investigated with modern techniques.
European Goldfields plans to commence reconnaissance mapping, geochemical and
geophysical surveying and sampling of these exciting and highly prospective
areas early in 2009. This will be the first time that modern techniques have
been applied to much of the area acquired and the Company will capitalise on its
knowledge of porphyry and epithermal deposits gained from its previous work on
the Tethyan belt of central and southeast Europe within Greece, Romania and
Turkey.
Commenting on these developments David Reading, Chief Executive Officer of
European Goldfields said:
"We are delighted that our group reserves now exceed 10 million ounces of gold.
Progress made with Certej over the last few months has been significant, we have
added a further 4 years of mine life and are actively expanding our business in
Romania. Romania has the combination of an excellent mining workforce and
prospective geology - combining these attributes with our modern mining
practices will deliver an exciting and exemplary project."
Directors Dealings
On 1 January 2009, 100,000 restricted share units granted for nil consideration
in August 2008 to Mark Rachovides (Executive Vice President), and 75,000
restricted share units granted for nil consideration in August 2008 to Tim
Morgan-Wynne (Chief Financial Officer) under the Company's Restricted Share Unit
Plan were redeemed for nil consideration into an equal number of Common Shares
of the Company, from which the Company withheld 70,000 shares for tax purposes.
As a result, Mr Mark Rachovides is now beneficially interested in 60,000 common
shares of the Company representing 0.03% of the Company's issued share capital
and Mr Tim Morgan-Wynne is now beneficially interested in 135,000 common shares
of the Company representing 0.08% of the Company's issued share capital.
Further to this redemption, Mark Rachovides and Tim Morgan-Wynne do not hold any
more restricted share units.
About European Goldfields
European Goldfields Limited is a resource company involved in the acquisition,
exploration and development of mineral properties in Greece, Romania and
South-East Europe.
Greece - European Goldfields holds a 95% interest in Hellas Gold S.A. Hellas
Gold owns three major gold and base metal deposits in Northern Greece. The
deposits are the polymetallic operation at Stratoni, the Olympias project which
contains gold, zinc, lead and silver, and the Skouries copper/gold porphyry
project. Hellas Gold commenced production at Stratoni in September 2005 and
started selling an existing stockpile of gold concentrates from Olympias in July
2006. Hellas Gold is applying for permits to develop and build the Skouries and
Olympias projects.
Romania - European Goldfields owns 80% of the Certej gold/silver project in
Romania. In July 2008, the National Agency of Mineral Resources approved the
technical feasibility study in support of its permit application and issued a
new mining permit for the Certej project.
For further information please contact:
+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| European Goldfields: | e-mail: info@egoldfields.com |
| David Reading, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44 (0)20 7408 9534 |
| | |
+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Buchanan Communications: | e-mail: bobbym@buchanan.uk.com |
| Bobby Morse / Ben Willey | Tel: +44 (0)20 7466 5000 |
| | |
+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
| RBC Capital Markets: | e-mail: andrew.smith@rbccm.com |
| Andrew K Smith / Sarah Wharry | Tel: +44 (0)20 7653 4804 |
+----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
Resources & reserves parameters
For additional information on the resource and reserve estimates quoted in this
news release, please refer to the Company's Resources & Reserves Declaration at
www.egoldfields.com/goldfields/resources.jsp. Patrick Forward, General Manager,
Exploration of the Company, was the Qualified Person under Canadian National
Instrument 43-101 responsible for reviewing the disclosure of resource and
reserve estimates quoted in this news release.
Forward-looking statements
Certain statements and information contained in this document, including any
information as to the Company's future financial or operating performance and
other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future
performance, constitute forward-looking information under provisions of Canadian
provincial securities laws. When used in this document, the words "anticipate",
"expect", "will", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "planned" and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information.
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the estimation of
mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future
production, costs and timing of development of new deposits, permitting time
lines and expectations regarding metal recovery rates. Forward-looking
statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions
that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to
significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies.
The Company cautions the reader that such forward-looking statements involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the
actual financial results, performance or achievements of the Company to be
materially different from its estimated future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements and the
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These
risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to: changes
in the price of gold, base metals or certain other commodities (such as fuel and
electricity) and currencies; uncertainty of mineral reserves, resources, grades
and recovery estimates; uncertainty of future production, capital expenditures
and other costs; currency fluctuations; financing and additional capital
requirements; the successful and timely permitting of the Company's Skouries,
Olympias and Certej projects; legislative, political, social or economic
developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company carries on business;
operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development
activities; the speculative nature of gold and base metals exploration and
development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of
reserves; the risks normally involved in the exploration, development and mining
business; and risks associated with internal control over financial reporting.
For a more detailed discussion of such risks and material factors or assumptions
underlying these forward-looking statements, see the Company's Annual
Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2007, filed on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation,
to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to view the
associated PDF document.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6697L_1-2009-1-14.pdf
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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