A pre-feasibility study of Tianshan Goldfields’ Gold Mountain Project in north-west China has been extended until early 2009 to ensure that all development parameters are fully examined to underpin any decision to progress to a full feasibility study in 2009.

The extension will also enable the company to meet its internal investment criteria, and provide sufficient time to complete an extensive metallurgical test work program.

Gold Mountain comprises measured, indicated and inferred resources totalling 94.8 million tonnes at 0.9 grams/tonne gold for 2.64 million contained ounces.

The basic process plant design and costing study for a heap leach operation undertaken by Bateman Engineering and the pit optimizations undertaken by Cube Engineering have been completed on the principal Yelmand-Jinxi and Mayituobi deposits at Gold Mountain, with preliminary mine scheduling also completed.

An initial review of the pre-feasibility study data and development scenarios was based on the key parameters of resource estimates, metallurgy and processing options, pit optimization and mine scheduling, and preliminary capital and operating costs.

Work now in progress and required to finalize the study primarily comprises metallurgical tests commissioned in the second quarter of 2008. This includes a substantial column leach metallurgical test work program on ore-type samples for Yelmand, Jinxi and Mayituobi deposits to confirm leach recoveries and High Pressure Grind Roll (HPGR) trial crushing tests.

The primary objective of the pilot scale test work program is to generate bulk ore samples for column leach test work, which will provide a direct comparison of leach recoveries between conventional crush and HPGR crushing.

Although the main focus of ongoing Pre-Feasibility Studies has been on developing a possible open pit heap leach processing operation, infrastructure studies to date have confirmed very low power costs ($US0.054pkh) available at the proposed mine site.

This fact has broadened the scope of the ongoing studies to include consideration of Carbon in Leach processing. It is expected that the inclusion of a CIL option in the current pre-feasibility study will not adversely extend the completion of the study beyond that anticipated for completion of column leach tests.

www.tianshangoldfields.com.au