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St Andrew Goldfields Ltd. (T-SAS), (“SAS” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the Holt Mine has now achieved commercial production after operating for 90 days at an average daily throughput of between 450 to 500 tonnes per day (“tpd”). Operational statistics will be provided in the Company’s upcoming scheduled first quarter 2011 earnings release on or about May 6, 2011. The Holt Mine and Mill are located on the eastern portion of the Company’s extensive land package in the Timmins Mining District.
During the second half of 2010 the Company commenced pre-production activities at the Holt Mine in order to bring the mine into production at the beginning of the second quarter this year. During 2011, ore will be extracted primarily from two zones (C-103 and Zone 4). Currently, production mining is occurring in the C-103 Zone and development work is being completed in Zone 4 with the objective to commence mining activities in this zone during the second half of the year. Production throughput is anticipated to increase from the initial rate of 500 tpd to 1,000 tpd around the end of this year. The Holt Mine, along with the Holloway and Hislop mines are targeted to produce between 85,000 to 95,000 ounces of gold for 2011.
“Commencing production at Holt was one of several major milestones in the rebuilding of SAS,” said Jacques Perron, President & CEO of SAS. “This year remains a transitional year for the Company as we continue to ramp up the throughput at Holt to 1,000 tpd; and shift the mining areas at Holloway from the Blacktop Zone to the Smoke Deep Zone. We believe our first few quarters will be impacted by these changes; however, we are still on track to achieve our objectives. Now that we have completed our initial operational goals and commenced our targeted exploration programs, we can start to assess other opportunities in the region in order to add to the continued growth and success of SAS.”
Qualified Person
Production at the Holloway, Hislop and Holt mines, and processing at the Holt Mill are being conducted under the supervision of Duncan Middlemiss, P.Eng, the Company’s Vice President & General Manager, East Timmins Operations. Mr. Middlemiss is the qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and who has reviewed and approved this news release.
About SAS
SAS (operating as “SAS Goldmines”), is a gold mining and exploration company with an extensive land package in the Timmins mining district, northeastern Ontario, which lies within the Abitibi greenstone belt, the most important host of historical gold production in Canada. SAS is focussed on developing its assets in the Timmins Camp, with three producing mines and aggressive exploration activities across 120km of land straddling the Porcupine-Destor Fault Zone.
For further information about St Andrew Goldfields Ltd., please contact:
Tel: 1-800-463-5139 or (416) 815-9855; Fax: (416) 815-9437; Website: www.sasgoldmines.com
