FOCUS APPOINTS MINING CONTRACTOR, SIGNS TOLL TREATMENT AGREEMENT...

FOCUS APPOINTS MINING CONTRACTOR, SIGNS TOLL TREATMENT AGREEMENT AHEAD OF MAIDEN GOLD POUR
Australian-based gold and nickel company Focus Minerals Ltd (ASX: FML), through its Redemption Joint Venture (RJV) with Canadian-based Committee Bay Resources (TXV: CBR), is pleased to announce the appointment of well-known and experienced mining contractor, Barminco Limited, to develop and mine the Company’s flagship Perseverance Gold Deposit located in the world-class Coolgardie Gold region in Western Australia.
Barminco gained access to the Perseverance site last week and mobilisation is now complete. Preparatory site works have commenced for the establishment of the underground operation, where an eventual workforce of up to 40 staff will bring Perseverance online as a fully-functioning and producing mine.
Additionally, Focus has finalised arrangements for the priority toll treatment of first ore mined from Perseverance through an agreement with Higginsville Mining Pty Ltd to treat Perseverance ore at its Greenfields mineral processing plant at favourable rates, which is located adjacent to the RJV’s fully-permitted 1.2mtpa Three Mile Hill processing facility.
The processing agreement – for the guaranteed treatment of up to 480,000 tonnes of RJV ore per annum – gives Focus the opportunity to treat smaller tonnages and gain early cash flow, prior to the need to have its own Three Mile Hill treatment plant on line.
Under the terms of the agreement, Higginsville Mining will toll treat RJV ore at the Greenfields plant, at competitive rates and on a priority basis.
The appointment of the mining contract and signing of the toll treatment agreement represent the final stages required to bring the Perseverance deposit into production, with first gold due to be poured in April.
Other recent milestones for the Perseverance Project include the completion of a positive Feasibility Study in December 2007 and the recent announcement (refer ASX release 19 February 2008) of a 28% increase in Indicated Resources to 490,700 tonnes @ 7.5grams/tonne for 118,500 contained ounces.
The longer-term development objective at the Coolgardie Project is to ramp up production to a sustainable level of 80-100,000 ounces per annum from FY2011 onwards from multiple deposits within the development pipeline, with ore to be processed at the Three Mile Hill plant.