Aside from the above milestones, Midas completed a positive PEA, the results of which were announced on September 4, 2012, which outlined the potential for the development of a significant, low-cost, large-scale gold mining operation with important antimony by-products, subject to the acquisition of additional information such as that collected during 2012 and planned for 2013 and, of course, all necessary regulatory approvals. The PEA also outlined the basis for the concurrent reclamation of the extensive legacy environmental disturbance resulting from more than 100 years of mining activity, including the remediation of the site supporting the re-establishment of fish migration past the former Yellow Pine pit.
The Golden Meadows Project design continues to progress beyond the PEA phase, with particular focus on assessing alternate process flow-sheets, alternate project throughputs and related capital costs, and staging of the development to optimize the overall project economics and permitability. These alternates will be considered in the updated PEA, scheduled for the second half of 2012.
New Drill Results
Significant previously unreported assay results from the most recent drill holes are summarized in Table 1, below, with more detailed results in Table 2 at the end of this release. Additional results from the ongoing program will be released when assays are received and validated.
Table 1: Highlights of Recent Drill Results from Yellow Pine & West End Deposits---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole From To Interval Gold Silver AntimonyHole-ID Type Area (m) (m) (m)(1) (g/t) (g/t) (%)----------------------------------------------------------------------------MGI-12-325(1) Core Yellow 123.9 171.6 47.7 1.48 2.6 0.004 Pine----------------------------------------------------------------------------MGI-12-331 Core Hangar 101.8 127.6 25.8 3.65 2.6 0.007 Flats----------------------------------------------------------------------------MGI-12-335 Core Yellow 8.9 26.8 17.9 3.07 0.4 0.244 Pine----------------------------------------------------------------------------And 98.8 180.1 81.4 1.03 0.6 0.002----------------------------------------------------------------------------Including 158.5 172.2 13.7 2.18 0.8 0.003----------------------------------------------------------------------------MGI-12-337 Core Yellow 91.4 109.3 17.8 3.20 23.5 1.540 Pine----------------------------------------------------------------------------MGI-12-339 Core Yellow 57.0 81.2 24.2 2.61 15.2 0.905 Pine----------------------------------------------------------------------------Including 57.0 69.7 12.7 3.67 21.5 1.271----------------------------------------------------------------------------(1) Based upon the current 3D interpretation of the Hangar Flats and Yellow Pine deposits, the intervals quoted here are at or near true thickness and are composited using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off and may include short intervals of internal waste below the cut-off grade. Intervals denoted (1) are likely to have true widths less than the interval reported herein.
