Update on Direct Nickel Limited

RNS Number : 8017V

Regency Mines PLC

17 January 2013

 



REGENCY MINES PLC

("Regency" or the "Company")

Update on Direct Nickel Limited - Pilot Plant Stage 1 commissioning

17 January 2013

Regency Mines plc, a mining exploration and mineral investment company with interests in nickel and other minerals in Australia, Africa, and Papua New Guinea is pleased to announce an update on progress at Direct Nickel Limited ("DNi"), a company in which Regency is a shareholder and its joint venture partner in a nickel-cobalt laterite project ("Mambare Project") in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea.

Further to the announcement on 20 December 2012, DNi has now confirmed that a significant milestone has been reached with the commencement of the Stage 1 Plant hot commissioning on 15^th January 2013 at the CSIRO facility at Waterford, Western Australia.

Regency Chairman Andrew Bell reports: "The introduction of the first ore feed to the plant on schedule is a critical development and we congratulate the teams at DNi, CSIRO, and technical consultants RMDStem and look forward to further news as the testwork continues."

Enquiries:

Andrew Bell	020 7402 4580 or    07766 474849	Regency Mines plc	Chairman
Sandra Spencer	020 7402 4580 or 07757 660 798	Regency Mines plc	Public and Investor Relations
Gerry Beaney/ Daniela Amihood	020 7383 5100	Grant Thornton Corporate Finance	Nominated Adviser
Nick Emerson	01483 413500	Simple Investments Ltd	Broker

Note to Editors: DNi is a public company incorporated in Australia. It is currently demonstrating a potentially revolutionary process with attractive economics for treating laterite nickel ores (the "Direct Nickel Process" or the "Process").

The Direct Nickel Process is a hydrometallurgical process for the treatment of nickel laterites with unprecedented efficiency and environmental benefits. It is designed to operate with tank leaching at atmospheric pressure, and is the first to treat both limonite and saprolite ores with a single flowsheet. The Process recycles its novel reagents, offers high cobalt and nickel recoveries with short residence time, produces mixed hydroxide precipitates ("MHP") or sulphide concentrate, has substantially lower capital and operating costs than competing processes and is fully scaleable.

 

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