Golden Phoenix Minerals Updates Progress at Its Mineral Ridge Gold Mine; Announces Phase 2 Drilling Program
Monday November 17, 8:15 am ET
RENO, Nev., Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Golden Phoenix Minerals, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GPXM - News), a mineral property development company, announced today that Phase 1 gold production at its Mineral Ridge gold mine has significantly improved and that new ore is being placed on the leach pads to further enhance the overall gold recovery. Mineral Ridge is located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Phase 1 gold and silver recovery began after the Company filed its $2.7 million reclamation bond in late July. The amount of gold and silver dore recovered since Phase 1 began is 618 ounces. The Company has resolved the issues relating to the restart of its gold leaching, and gold recovery is accelerating at a pace that is projected to achieve the Company's 1,000 ounces production per month.
In meeting this goal, Golden Phoenix has made improvements to the leach circuit equipment, increased the quality and quantity of cyanide in solution, and is transporting stockpiled ore and previously blasted ore from the Brodie Pit to the leach pad. Presently the leach pad contains more than 1.6 million tons of crushed ore and has a design capacity of 6 million tons. The combination of equipment upgrades, rising cyanide saturation, and the addition of ore from existing stockpiles will continue to support gold production and prepare for the mining and transporting of new ore material to the pad over the coming year.
"We are on track to achieving our Phase 1 gold production objectives," said Michael Fitzsimonds, President and CEO of Golden Phoenix Minerals," and we can now look ahead to Phase 2. The staff has been directed to design an aggressive multi-phased drilling plan for both reserve expansion and step-out exploration holes throughout the Mineral Ridge property. Work on that drilling plan design has already commenced. It is the Company's intention that we begin drilling within the next 1 to 2 months."
"There are more than 50 miles of existing tunnels and two partially-mined open pits on the Mineral Ridge property from which 665,000 ounces of gold have been previously recovered," said Steve Craig, Company Vice President and Chief Geologist. "This represents less than 10% of the mineable land area available for exploration, and we are developing a long-term, multi-stage drill program to measure the existing gold that remains. We look forward to working this mine for many years to come."
The Mineral Ridge gold mine currently has a proven/probable ore reserve of 2.66 million tons averaging 0.079 ounces gold per ton for a total of 209,000 ounces. These reserves are contained within an overall drilled mineral inventory of 11.4 million tons grading 0.047 ounces gold per ton.
Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. is a mineral-property development company headquartered in Reno, Nevada. It specializes in acquiring and consolidating large, advanced-stage properties with potential for near-term production and good resource development potential. Acquisition and development emphasis is on deposits containing gold, silver, copper and other strategic minerals that are located in Nevada and the western United States.
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