VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/13/13 -- Elgin Mining Inc. ("Elgin Mining" or the "Company") (TSX: ELG)(TSX: ELG.WT) is pleased to announce strong production of 11,401 gold ounces for Q4-2012 and 46,808 gold ounces for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012(1), respectively. Production surpassed the Company's stated 2012 guidance of 44,000 to 46,000 gold ounces. The Company is also providing guidance on its gold production, and outlook for its operating, development and exploration budgets for 2013. All figures are in United States dollars ("$") unless otherwise stated.
Patrick Downey, President and CEO of Elgin Mining, commented, "I want to congratulate our operating team at the Bjorkdal gold mine for an impressive production quarter and for surpassing guidance for the year. We believe the operational improvements, which focused on the mine's underground and open pit mining operations in the latter half of 2012, are starting to take hold and will continue to be reflected in the 2013 production profile. Also, with these continued improvements and our focused exploration program, the Bjorkdal mine has the potential to be a much larger and more profitable operation which will continue to be our key focus in 2013. Should operational improvements and exploration indicate that the Bjorkdal operation could be expanded, we plan to commence a detailed study of this opportunity later in 2013. We also continue to execute a disciplined de-risking effort at our advanced Lupin gold mine in Northern Canada. The work this year will focus on opening up the underground access and assessing all aspects of the underground access required for future start-up of operations planned for 2015. This staged de-risking is to ensure we have a robust operation prior to making the decision to recommence production at Lupin."
2012 Gold Production Data---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4-months ended June 30,Bjorkdal gold mine FY 2012 Q4-2012 Q3-2012 2012 Q1-2012----------------------------------------------------------------------------Open Pit (tonnes) 617,059 128,965 139,128 193,238 155,728----------------------------------------------------------------------------Open Pit (grams per tonne) 0.98 1.12 1.15 0.87 0.86----------------------------------------------------------------------------Underground (tonnes) 627,243 139,002 131,712 215,004 141,525----------------------------------------------------------------------------Underground (grams per tonne) 1.51 1.65 1.37 1.45 1.59----------------------------------------------------------------------------Stockpile (tonnes) 140,796 38,859 57,507 24,188 20,242----------------------------------------------------------------------------Stockpile (grams per tonne) 0.74 0.77 0.55 0.86 1.08----------------------------------------------------------------------------Tonnes milled 1,385,098 306,826 328,347 432,430 317,495----------------------------------------------------------------------------Plant throughput (tonnes per day) 3,489 3,335 3,569 3,545 3,489----------------------------------------------------------------------------Average plant head grade (g/t) 1.20 1.32 1.13 1.16 1.20----------------------------------------------------------------------------Average plant recovery rate (%) 87.8% 87.8% 87.6% 87.6% 88.5%----------------------------------------------------------------------------Gold production (ounces) 46,808 11,401 10,460 14,121 10,826----------------------------------------------------------------------------
