Mr. Renaud Hinse, President and C.E.O. of Abcourt Mines Inc. (the “Company”), is pleased to report that mine development at Elder gold mine is progressing well following the reception of a Certificate of Authorization from the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et des Parcs on April 17 last.
We now have three stopes in production, two stopes in preparation and one old access drift being rehabilitated. Ore extraction in May will total 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes. Production will be increased gradually with the objective of reaching commercial production at the end of 2013 (12,500 tonnes per month).
A surface diamond drilling program of 5,000 meters has recently been started. We are planning to drill 2,200 meters on the Elder property to upgrade inferred resources into indicated resources. In addition, a total of 2,800 meters will be drilled on our Aldermac, Abcourt-Barvue, Jonpol and Vezza properties.
A NI 43-101 resources estimate, completed by Mr. Jean-Pierre Bérubé, P. Eng., was filed on SEDAR in May 2012. It indicates 1,361,000 tonnes with a grade of 6.60 grams of gold per tonne in the measured and indicated categories for a total of 289,000 ounces of gold and 638,000 tonnes with a grade of 5.70 grams of gold per tonne in the inferred category for a total of 117,000 ounces of gold. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
A positive Preliminary Economic Assessment report (PEA) on the Elder mine, completed by Roche Limited, Consulting Group in November 2012, indicates a net present value before taxes (8%) of $81.8 million.
Source: http://www.abcourt.com/