Ghana Operations Progress Report
Goldplat plc / Ticker: GDP / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining &
Exploration
28 April 2008
Goldplat plc ('Goldplat' or 'the Company')
Progress Report on Ghana Operations
Goldplat plc, the AIM listed gold producer, is pleased to announce
that its gold recovery plant in Ghana, operated by its wholly owned
subsidiary Gold Recovery Ghana Limited ("GRG"), has extended its
agreement with Anglogold Ashanti ('Anglogold') to acquire stockpiles
of fine carbon on an open-ended basis. Additionally an agreement has
been made with other parties to purchase three large surface
stockpiles totalling 37,000 tonnes of material estimated to contain
up to 7,465 oz of gold based on assays of representative samples.
Operations at the plant are progressing well with the carbon in leach
circuit ("CIL") processing surface material at full capacity and new
equipment has been purchased to reduce costs and improve the
efficiency of material handling.
Goldplat CEO Demetri Manolis said, "We have made excellent progress
with the development of our gold recovery operation in Ghana and
secured a significant supply of materials to process in the future.
The success of our recovery businesses in South Africa and Ghana are
key to our strategy of creating a mid-tier mining-house focused on
gold production. With revenues increasing at both recovery
operations, we are ideally placed to advance our gold production
project in Kenya and explore new acquisition opportunities throughout
Africa."
Raw Materials
The Company has extended its on-going agreement with Anglogold, which
was due to expire at the end of April 2008, for the recovery of gold
from fine carbon materials and mill liners from the mining process on
an open-ended basis. A 30 day notice period has been incorporated
into the contract. In addition, GRG has signed an agreement with
another party to purchase a further three large surface stockpiles
providing approximately an extra 37,000 tonnes of material estimated
to contain up to 7,716 oz of gold based on assays of representative
samples. GRG now has 89,000 tonnes of artisanal tailings stockpiled
estimated to contain up to 35,365 oz, based on representative samples
of gold, which exceeds nine years of current production capability.
In addition, the supply of mill liners and fine carbon material
continues to be robust as Goldplat establishes new relationships with
mining houses in Ghana and neighbouring countries, evaluating all
stockpiles offered to determine their economic value.
Processing
GRG's operating facility continues to perform buoyantly processing
the surface material through the gravity concentration circuit and
the CIL circuit on a 24-hour, three shift, six days per week
operation. The first batch of loaded carbon was removed from the CIL
circuit and sent to its strategic partner, Rand Refinery Ltd, for
gold recovery.
The Company has also purchased a forklift truck and a small front end
loader to improve the efficiency of material handling at its Ghanaian
operations and, subsequently, reduced costs.
Improvements
GRG is ordering a new incinerator for the processing of the fine
carbon, which should be operational by the end of the year. This will
reduce processing costs and ensure that the Company is competitive
when bidding for future fine carbon contracts.
Relationships with the Authorities and Clients
GRG is committed to building relationships with both national and
local authorities as well as mining companies in order to expand its
supplier base in Ghana and West Africa. To this end, the Company is
in discussions with various relevant parties from neighbouring states
including Mali and Guinea.
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For further information visit www.goldplat.com or contact:
Demetri Manolis, CEO Goldplat plc Tel: +27 11
423 1203
James Joyce WH Ireland Limited Tel: 020 7220
1666
Isabel Crossley/Felicity Edwards St Brides Media & Tel: 020 7236
Finance Ltd 1177
Notes
Goldplat plc is an AIM-listed gold producer with operations in
Africa. Its strategy is to create a mid-tier mining house focused on
gold production leveraged through revenue generated from its gold
recovery businesses.
The Company has two recovery business based in South African and
Ghana, which, by safely disposing of mining by-products, fulfil an
important aspect of the mines' environmental management programmes.
The South African plant is located near the centre of the East Rand
Goldfield and raw material feedstocks are sourced from many of the
major South African mining companies including Anglogold Ashanti,
Goldfields, Harmony, DRD Gold and other smaller producers,. The
Ghana plant, located in the free port of Tema, provides access to raw
materials from mines in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote
D'Ivorie, Senegal, the DRC and Mauritania, as well as Ghana.
Goldplat is expanding into gold mining through the acquisition of
known deposits with targets of between 200,000 and one million ounces
of ore contained. To this end, in a 50/50 JV, it is developing the
potential of the highly prospective 213 sq km Lolgorien licence area
located in the historically producing Migori Archaean Greenstone Belt
in western Kenya, with a view of establishing a mining operation in
the short term. A number of other potential projects across Africa
are under review.
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