TIDMANGM

RNS Number : 8423S

Angel Mining PLC

28 November 2011

ANGEL MINING PLC

("Angel Mining" or the "Company")

   AIM:   ANGM 

Publication of Newsletter

The Board of Angel Mining is pleased to announce the publication of their second corporate newsletter. The full wording of the newsletter can be found on the company's website (www.angelmining.com) but the summary text is as follows:

"Highlights

   --     Record pour of 12.53 kilograms of dore at Nalunaq on 21 November 
   --     New AAS machine is fully operational 
   --     New mine plan will increase the amount of high grade ore that can be mined at Nalunaq 
   --     Recruitment of a new Deputy General Manager and the appointment of a new Mine Captain 

-- All four of the cables at Black Angel have been tensioned and the project is closing for the winter period

-- Discussions are ongoing with regards to refinancing the existing short term debt issuance facilities

Nalunaq

Nalunaq is currently in a routine of pouring gold every two weeks and on Monday, 21 November, we achieved our biggest pour to date at 12.53 kilograms.

The new AAS machine is on site and is now fully operational measuring ore grade and it is also helping the plant management team to better understand plant efficiency levels. We are currently recovering approximately 70% of the gold in the feed material and that this can be further improved by reducing the grind size still further and replacement of the carbon transfer pump with a chokeless impeller unit. Finer grind may reduce the throughput capacity of the plant as it will require longer residency time in the ball mill, but this is acceptable if the grade of ore to be processed is of a sufficiently high grade such that the plant will still produce the targeted 2,000 ounces per month. Work is also continuing to replace the agitator assemblies in the CIP tanks as they have proven to be too weak for the task and have been twisting out of shape. To date, two of the eight tanks have been upgraded and we expect this to improve the performance in transferring the gold from the cyanide to the carbon.

Steve Ainsworth, the newly appointed Deputy General Manager has just completed his first tour on site and has instigated some interesting new developments. He has created a more rigid structure in the mining section by creating three teams who will work in rotations so that there will always be two of the three teams on site working 6 week tours, 7 day weeks and 12 hour days. He has also appointed a new Mine Captain, Tom Gaynor, who has replaced Dan Kuhn. Dan did an excellent job for us by establishing our basic mining team and training men in the use of explosives. He celebrated his 71(st) birthday with us last March and has now returned to his family in Bogota, Columbia.

Before leaving, Dan suggested that we consider mining the pillars left behind by Crew Gold. Steve has explored this suggestion and, together with our mining engineer, Andrew Shuster, they have developed a mining method which we expect to submit to the BMP in the coming weeks as part of a request for a revised mining permit. The application will be supported by a report and risk analysis prepared by Golder & Associates whose team arrived on site on 18 November.

The process plant has been recovering approximately 70% of the gold from plant feed and we are working to increase this to over 90%. Part of the proposed solution is to reduce the grind size down from 100 microns to 75 microns, which will require more milling time. This factor, together with the general experience of reliability, means that the anticipated throughput rate will reduce to 150 tonnes per day from the 200 tonnes per day originally planned.

The ball mill is arguably the most critical part of the process plant as it is essential for feeding material into the plant and there is no substitute process. A few weeks ago some of the mill bearings failed and problems were discovered with the mill drive, including damage to a pinion. The engineers on site have made a temporary repair which has enabled the ball mill to be run at a reduced tonnage with careful monitoring. A new pinion is being manufactured and should be on site before 25 December 2011.

Black Angel

Garaventa have installed and tensioned the four cables and the upper terminal construction is complete. An independent rock mechanic inspected the portals and cable car anchor points and has confirmed that they are all in good condition.

All contractors have now left site leaving a skeleton crew on site for the winter period. The fjord has already frozen over, which is very early, and it is likely that it will be inaccessible by ships until next June. At that time, Garaventa will return to complete the commissioning of the cable car and, subject to the availability of project finance, construction work will start towards the development of the mine and the process plant.

There has been a delay in the arrival of the new Project Director but he is now expected to commence work in early December. In the meantime, our Operations Support Manager, Joan Plant, has been developing the detailed project programme.

Finance

Every effort is being made to accelerate production of gold at Nalunaq to improve cash flow.

The price of gold has been fluctuating in response to world events and the Company has fixed the price on about 60% of its anticipated production for the next few months at a price just below $1,770 per ounce.

Discussions are ongoing with Cyrus Capital Partners with regard to the renegotiation of short term debt repayment terms. It is anticipated that they will play a vital role in the raising of funding for the construction of Black Angel.

As announced previously, Socius continue to hold 50,025,312 shares relating to the drawdown of $3.0 million which was not completed. The Company's lawyers are working on a solution to the technical legal problems associated with the return of these shares. We believe this issue can be resolved within the next few months and Socius is working with us to achieve this.

Website

A company presentation from recent conferences in Nuuk and London is available on the website.

 
 Nalunaq Production Stats    Year to 
                               date     October 
==========================  ========  ========= 
 Tonnes mined                 6,447     1,492 
--------------------------  --------  --------- 
 Tonnes processed            14,372     3,088 
--------------------------  --------  --------- 
 Dore produced (ounces)       1,692      335 
--------------------------  --------  --------- 
 Gold recovered               1,512      391 
--------------------------  --------  --------- 
 Gold sold (ounces)           1,512      391 
--------------------------  --------  --------- 
 

"

Enquiries:

 
 Angel Mining plc 
  Nicholas Hall, Chief Executive Officer    07931 709 053 
  Kevin McNair, Chief Financial Officer      07900 690 908 
 Fox-Davies Capital (Nominated Adviser 
  and Broker) 
  Simon Leathers                             0203 463 5010 
 Bishopsgate Communications Limited 
  Nick Rome/Shabnam Bashir                   0207 562 3350 
 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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