Thursday, April 19, 2012 -
Kazakhstan-focused Frontier Mining saw its shares spike in London on Wednesday after announcing the start of mining operations at its Benkala project.
“Mining operations have now commenced with mining occurring on an on-going daily basis at a rate of 1,500 tons [1,653 U.S. short tons] per day of ore, which will ramp up to 8,000 tons [8,818 U.S. short tons] per day as normal operations are established,” the company said in a statement.
Stocks of the copper and gold explorer and developer rose by more than 15 percent on the London Stock Exchange at the news, the Stockmarketwire.com news agency reported.
It was the company’s biggest gain since mid-January.
Frontier said it has stockpiled around 28,000 U.S. short tons of ore at the project.
The miner owns 50 percent of the Benkala copper and gold project, located in northwest Kazakhstan within the Urals ore belt.
Frontier expects to produce its first copper cathode from Benkala in June, the statement said.
The company already has new rail track laid connecting the storage complex to the main railway line. Its ready infrastructure includes underground pipelines, collection and drainage pipes, and a 110 KvA substation.
Frontier also wholly owns the Naimanjal prospect in northeast Kazakhstan, which has gold, copper, and molybdenum deposits. It is expecting to release an independent estimated resource figure this year.