Griffin Mining Limited (the “Company”) is pleased to report that the newly commissioned processing facilities at the Caijiaying Zinc-Gold Mine (“Caijiaying”) have now reached the equivalent of approximately 900,000 tonnes per annum throughput. The processing of the expanded name plate capacity throughput of 1,500,000 tonnes of ore per annum will not be achieved until the delivery of the new 750,000 tonne per annum ball mill and the connection of additional grid power. These events are expected to be completed by June 2015.
Production, and consequently the financial results, in 2014 have been significantly impacted by the suspension in processing to allow for the upgrade of the processing facilities at the Caijiaying mine from 11th August to 17th November and the subsequent re-commissioning of the plant, a process which took 6 weeks longer to complete than originally envisioned.
Griffin continues to experience bureaucratic delays in the granting of a new mining licence and permit for the Zone III deeps and Zone II areas at Caijiaying and continues to actively manage the administrative process involved in the granting of these licences.
Mladen Ninkov, Griffin’s Chairman, commented: “The additional time taken to complete the expansion of the processing facilities at Caijiaying will inevitably cause disappointing financial results in 2014. However, the price has been worth paying to position the Company to be a globally significant zinc producer with substantial precious metal credits with the expected and much discussed global shortfall in zinc supply expected in 2015 and beyond. It is with this expectation that shareholders should reap the benefits of their patience.”
