Austindo completes Cibaliung gold project PFS

Australian listed exploration company Austindo Resources Corporation NL announced on Wednesday that it had completed Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS) on its 72.3 percent-owned Cibaliung Gold Project in Banten province and said at present the project did not meet the company?s economic hurdles.

The PFS, which commenced in April 2002, was based on a gold price of US$300 and aimed to develop capital and operating costs to within a level of accuracy of +/- 20 percent for the underground mining of the Cikoneng and Cibitung high-grade epithermal deposits.

Austindo said based on the PFS, the project would have mine life of about 6 years with production ramping up to process 150,000 tonnes of ores per annum with recovery of gold and silver by a conventional gravity-CIL processing plant with mineable resources of 835,000 tonnes at 10.5 grams per tonne (g/t) Au and 71 g/t Ag, 306,800 ounces of gold equivalent). Average life of mine cash operating costs of US$200/Oz with initial capital estimate of some US$23 million.

?At present the project does not meet the company's economic hurdles. The PFS has identified a number of areas where further work could provide improvements in project revenues. These include increasing the size of the resource, improving metallurgical recovery and reducing the capital and operating costs,? said the company in a report to Australian Stock Exchange.

?Reflecting the potential of the Cibaliung Project, the Board has allocated US$720,000 to be spent over the next 12 months at Cibaliung. This program will include drilling to define extensions to the Cikoneng and Cibitung deposits, surface exploration to locate and drill additional targets in the adjacent areas and a review of project parameters and costings.?

Aneka Tambang?s subsidiary International Antam Resources has the remaining 27.7 percent stake at Cibaliung gold project. (alex)