TALV Talvivaara

 
TIDMTALV 
 
Stock Exchange Release 
 
Talvivaara Mining Company Plc 
 
7 April 2011 
 
 
 
 
 
      New production record slightly short of guidance achieved in Q1 2011 
 
     Production guidance for 2011 reduced to 22,000-28,000 tonnes of nickel 
                        due to necessary plant upgrades 
 
 
 
Talvivaara  Mining Company Plc ("Talvivaara" or the "Company") announces that it 
has  achieved a new  quarterly production record  of 4,215t of nickel during the 
period  of  January-March  2011. Although  production  was  marginally below the 
Company's  guidance, it exceeded the previous quarter's nickel output by 10% and 
confirmed further progress in production ramp-up at the Sotkamo mine. 
 
The  new quarterly production record was  achieved despite a series of technical 
issues  resulting in low availability of the metals recovery plant. Particularly 
good  production levels were achieved in  March, when the nickel output averaged 
an annualised rate of over 32,000t for the last ten days of the month, achieving 
also new monthly and weekly records. 
 
Despite the recent success in metals recovery, the Company believes that certain 
upgrades  and modifications at the  plant are necessary in  order to sustain the 
achieved  throughput rates  and to  ramp up  production further. The Company has 
therefore  decided to  bring the  annual maintenance  break forward to April-May 
2011 and  to extend  this scheduled  break to  allow for  all of  the identified 
issues  to be addressed and for the plant  to be thoroughly inspected as part of 
the   Company's  preventive  maintenance  plan.  The  overall  duration  of  the 
modification programme is to be extended by a fortnight. 
 
The  Company anticipates scheduling a  second maintenance stoppage for September 
or  October in order to install long  lead-time equipment which is not available 
during  the first stoppage, and to further enhance parts of process equipment in 
order  to avoid potential problems caused  by exceptional winter conditions. The 
second  maintenance programme  is estimated  to last  approximately one week and 
will complete the upgrading of the plant for sustainable full scale production. 
 
The  planned  plant  modifications  and  maintenance works involve increasing of 
sulphur  melting  and  certain  pumping  capacities,  cleaning  and upgrading of 
hydrogen  sulphide  generators,  inspection  and  maintenance  of  reactors  and 
thickeners,  and numerous small modification items, e.g. doubling up of selected 
process  pipelines,  that  help  improve  production reliability and sustainable 
capacity.  No major equipment  additions or replacements  are anticipated; hence 
the  upgrading and maintenance programmes are  not expected to materially affect 
the Company's capital expenditure during the year. 
 
The  impact on  production output  of the  planned modification  and maintenance 
programmes depends on the timing and eventual length of the production stoppages 
and  the resulting improvement in production reliability and capacity. Delays in 
reclaiming  the  primary  heap  may  also  have  an  impact on production due to 
corresponding  delays in  obtaining leach  solution from  the secondary  heap to 
metals recovery. 
 
Overall,  the Company believes it realistic to anticipate a production shortfall 
of  5,000-8,000t of nickel  from the  previous guidance. Accordingly, Talvivaara 
revises its production guidance for 2011 to 22,000-28,000t of nickel. 
 
Pekka Perä, Talvivaara's CEO commented: "Whilst the maintenance and upgrade work 
at  our metals plant will have a short-term impact on our production targets, it 
will  put  Talvivaara  in  a  stronger  position  in  the  long term. During the 
programme  we  will  concentrate  on  both  preventive maintenance, which should 
minimise  unforeseen production  problems in  the future,  and on upgrades which 
will  boost production  capacity and  reliability and  improve resilience during 
difficult weather conditions." 
 
 
 
 
ENQUIRIES 
 
Talvivaara Mining Company Plc                         Tel: +358 20 712 9800 
Pekka Perä, Chief Executive Officer 
Saila Miettinen-Lähde, Chief Financial Officer 
 
Merlin PR                                        Tel: +44 207 726 8400 
David Simonson 
Anca Spiridon 
 
 
Talvivaara Mining Company Plc 
Talvivaara Mining Company is an internationally significant base metals producer 
with its primary focus on nickel and zinc using a technology known as 
bioheapleaching to extract metals out of ore. Bioheapleaching makes extraction 
of metals from low grade ore economically viable. The Talvivaara deposits 
comprise one of the largest known sulphide nickel resources in Europe. The ore 
body is estimated to support anticipated production for several decades. 
Talvivaara has secured a 10-year off-take agreement for 100 per cent of its main 
output of nickel and cobalt to Norilsk Nickel and entered into a long-term zinc 
streaming agreement with Nyrstar NV. Talvivaara is listed on the London Stock 
Exchange Main Market and NASDAQ OMX Helsinki and is included in the FTSE 250 
Index. Further information can be found atwww.talvivaara.com. 
 
 
 
 
Production update 07 04 2011: 
http://hugin.info/136227/R/1504275/439186.pdf 
 
 
 
 
This announcement is distributed by Thomson Reuters on behalf of 
Thomson Reuters clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: 
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and 
    other applicable laws; and 
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and 
     originality of the information contained therein. 
 
Source: Talvivaaran Kaivososakeyhtiö Oyj via Thomson Reuters ONE 
 
[HUG#1504275] 
 

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