key milestone achieved

Perth-based company Range River Gold (ASX: RNG) has advised that the first ore from Mt Morgans in Western Australia was delivered to Barrick's Granny Smith operations yesterday, marking a key milstone for the gold producer.

The Company also announced that the conforming contract for ore sale to Barrick has been executed by both parties.

During the afternoon trade, shares in the company increased 9.7% to 3.4c.

The first parcel of ore is scheduled to be crushed at Barricks Granny Smith operations on or shortly after the 20 February 2010.

The ore in the first parcel will be mined from the Craic deposit. This parcel will be used by both companies to test the procedures and processes established for sampling, processing and payment.

Under the terms of the agreement, RNG will receive provisional payments during the period from delivery of ore until final reconciliation of recoverable gold for each batch.

The delivery of first ore represents a key milestone in the delivery of RNGs plan for the re-development and operation of the Mt Morgans mine as well as re-establishing the Company as a gold producer.

This event, significantly, represents the commencement of the third phase of major production for the historic Mt Morgans Project.

The first phase of gold production was from 1897 to 1911 when approximately 330,000 ounces of gold were reported to have been mined and recovered at an average grade of ore greater than 15 g/t Au. The second phase was from 1988 to 1998 when a further 900,000 plus ounces of gold were reported to have been mined and produced at an average grade in excess of 3 g/t Au. Both these phases of production were prematurely halted due to low the gold price at the time of cessation of operations.

On current resources, Range River has developed a five year plan to produce an average of 40,000 ounces of gold per annum. RNG has developed an exploration program with a target of increasing the average annual production to 60,000 ounces of gold.