TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwire) -- 01/15/13 -- Apogee Silver Ltd. ("Apogee" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: APE) announces that the Company received US$ 609,000 representing approximately 85% of the gross proceeds for the delivery of over 95 dry tonnes (DMT) of lead-silver and 99 DMT of zinc-silver concentrates, following its successful custom milling, bulk-scale flotation tests undertaken on mineralized material from the Pulacayo Deposit. The concentrate was sold to Consorcio Minero S.A. (Cormin), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trafigura Group. The outstanding balance of payment is expected early in 2013 once final analysis of the concentrates is completed.
Apogee's CEO Neil Ringdahl stated, "Another major milestone for Apogee has been achieved with the production of salable concentrate at a commercial scale from the Pulacayo deposit. On the eve of producing a feasibility study for a robust, commercial scale mine at Pulacayo, the Company has demonstrated its ability to successfully conduct trial mining and processing operations in partnership with the Pulacayo Cooperative, and with the support of local communities and other stakeholders."
The lead-silver concentrate was produced under a custom milling contract at the la Estrella concentrator near Potosi in Bolivia during November 2012. La Estrella is one of three concentrators being used in the area for custom toll milling and bulk-scale test work of mineralized material from Pulacayo. It is expected that concentrates produced from the other two mills, namely, the FEDECOMIN and Tatasi concentrators will be shipped this quarter. The proceeds received by the Company from the sale of concentrates are net of shipping costs. As per the statutory requirements in Bolivia, metal export royalties have already been paid in advance (6% for silver and 5% for lead). NSR royalties related to the underlying agreements of the property (1.5% to the Pulacayo Cooperative and 2.5% to the Corporation Minera de Boliva (COMIBOL)) are payable once final analysis and payment is made by Cormin. Preliminary concentrate grades for the material shipped are provided in Table 1.
Table 1: Preliminary grades of concentrates produced at La EstrellaConcentrator -------------------------------------------------------------------- Concentrate Dry Metric Tonnes Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Lead 95 5,865 59.83 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Zinc 99 1,233 40.9 --------------------------------------------------------------------
About Apogee Silver Ltd.
Apogee Silver Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development stage company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol APE. Apogee targets advanced silver-zinc-lead projects in South America that demonstrate potential to be developed to production. Currently its projects are located in the historic silver producing regions of southwest Bolivia and northern Chile. There are currently 301,066,809 common shares of Apogee issued and outstanding.
