Minera Andes announces retraction and clarification of news release
Monday June 18, 2:13 pm ET
SPOKANE, WA, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Minera Andes Inc. ("Minera Andes" or the "Company") (TSX: MAI and US OTC: MNEAF) announces that it is retracting its April 10, 2007 news release and Material Change Report dated April 12, 2007. Consequently, investors should rely upon the reserves and information reported prior to the Company's April 10, 2007 news release that did not include the drilled off Kospi vein. The Company is also retracting all the disclosure in its 2006 Annual Report related to the Kospi vein. It is Minera Andes' current expectation that the Kospi vein will be added to the existing resources at the time a new technical report is filed in respect of the San Jose Mine. However, at this point we have insufficient data to include the Kospi vein in our resource calculations. The San Jose Project is owned by Minera Santa Cruz ("MSC") a company co-owned by Minera Andes (49%) and joint venture partner and operator Hochschild Mining plc (51%) ("Hochschild") (London Stock Exchange, LSE: HOC). Minera Andes understands that MSC is proposing to undertake the necessary additional technical work to allow the Kospi vein to be classified as a reserve.
The news release of April 10, 2007 discusses Hochschild's disclosure of the addition of new reserves at the Kospi vein to the existing San Jose reserves. This disclosure of an apparent material increase in reserves triggered the requirement for a new Canadian National Instrument 43-101("NI 43-101") technical report that is being completed by our independent consultants, AMEC. Based on work required to reconcile the reserve as disclosed by Hochschild (estimated to JORC standards) to NI 43-101 standards the Company and AMEC are reviewing whether the Kospi vein can properly be added to the reserves at the San Jose Project in compliance with the requirements of NI 43-101, given the technical work that has been done to date.
Minera Andes will file its new NI 43-101 technical report as soon as it is available. However, it appears that the report will not be available by June 25, 2007, the current deadline for completion of the report. As soon as the report is filed, Minera Andes will issue a news release that summarizes the report and reconciles differences between the reserves that were referred to in its April 10, 2007 news release and the reserve and resource figures that are supported by AMEC's independent technical report.
Production at the San Jose mine is scheduled to begin at the end of the second quarter of 2007. The November 2005 feasibility study on the San Jose Project assumed the use of conventional flotation, followed by leaching in a Merryl-Crowe plant to recover the gold and silver. As part of optimizing the processing operations MSC decided that the mine will use an intensive leaching reactor (ILR), in lieu of the Merryl-Crowe plant. The ILR was chosen because of its higher recoveries for gold and silver, better control of cyanide, and lower investment and operating costs, all of which were determined as a result of a comprehensive prefeasibility level metallurgical testwork undertaken in 2006. In addition, Hochschild has advised Minera Andes that they are using successfully an ILR in one of its Peruvian operations.
Minera Andes is a gold, silver and copper exploration company working in Argentina. The Corporation holds about 410,000 acres of mineral exploration land in Argentina including the co-owned San Jose silver/gold mine under construction for production and cash flow by mid-2007. Minera Andes has a 49% interest in the San Jose Project. Minera Andes is also exploring the Los Azules copper project in San Juan province, where drilling is underway to define a resource. Other exploration properties, primarily gold and silver, are being evaluated in southern Argentina. The Corporation presently has 166,605,767 issued and outstanding shares.
Allen V. Ambrose, Minera Andes' President, who is an appropriately qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed the information used in this news release.
This news is submitted by Allen V. Ambrose, President and Director of Minera Andes Inc.
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