Great Basin Gold’s Hollister Mine provides production results

Great Basin Gold Ltd., which is developing mining assets in two of the world’s richest gold environments — the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa and the Carlin Trend of Nevada, USA, provides the milling results of production at the Hollister Mine in Nevada, USA.

Last month, the mining company has completed the processing of ore at Newmont’s Midas mill, located 20 miles from Hollister.

Approximately 5,000 tons of ore with a gold head grade of 1.2 ounces per ton and a silver head grade of 9.5 ounces per ton has been processed.

The company has realized net revenue of $3.9 million after toll treatment costs of $45 per dry ton and a recoupment of capital amortization cost by Newmont.

Great Basin Gold is in a process to ship another stockpile of approximately 5,000 tons of ore to the Midas mill, that is expected to be processed with in this month.

Great Basin Gold has acquired Newmont’s 75% interest in the Hollister Gold Property (earlier known as the Ivanhoe Gold Property) in Nevada for US$6 million, way back in 1997, and just two years later, the company increased its interest to 100% through purchase of the stake held by Touchstone Resources.

Company President and CEO Ferdi Dippenaar said that the metallurgical results of the batch processing of the underground tonnage at the Midas mill were much in line with expectations.

A better indication of recoveries is expected with the processing of the second batch. The finalization of a long term toll treatment agreement remains high on our list of priorities which we plan to conclude and good progress is being made, added Mr. Dippenaar.

As in the case of developing mines the head grades at Hollister are expected to vary during the build-up phase, but current results continue to confirm the prospective nature of this ore body.

We are also pleased with the completion of the first phase of the underground development program, within budget, on schedule and without major safety incidents, concluded Mr. Dippenaar.