Petrosea?s Australian mining project to pour first gold end of April

Australian mining firm Renison Consolidated Mines NL reported Tuesday dry commissioning of the processing plant at Tom?s Gully gold mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia would start tomorrow (Wednesday) while wet commissioning of the whole plant to follow over the next 4-5 weeks.

?Ore will be treated at the end of April and the first gold pour soon after,? Renison said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, adding that over 3,000 tons of ore with significantly higher grades compared to the resource model has now been stockpiled at surface.

The Tom?s Gully mine is being operated under an Alliance Agreement with publicly listed engineering firm PT Petrosea Tbk.

The feasibility study, completed in early 2005, was a based on an initial mine life of 5 years, mining and processing 1.2 million tons at 7.2 g/t gold diluted head grade to produce an average 45,000 ounces per annum.

Renison said Tuesday that the recent upgrade in gold resources to over 500,000 ounces following the recent drilling program is expected to extend mine life and studies to update the mine design to incorporate the latest resource upgrade are underway. (Robert)