PanTerra Gold Limited, advises that the Company has completed a detailed review of operations at its Las Lagunas project in the Dominican Republic which involves extracting gold and silver from over 5mt of high grade (3.8g/t Au, 38.6g/t Ag) refractory tailings from the Pueblo Viejo mine. The review has involved independent specialist consultants, financiers, equipment suppliers, and senior company executives. Following the review, these experts and management concur that the application of Albion oxidation technology to the refractory ore should function as anticipated, and perform within reasonable proximity of targets established in pilot plant testwork, provided:

i) the process plant receives dredged feed at a reasonably constant throughput (100tph), density (30%-35% w/w), and sulphur grade (5.4%), with limited variability in particle size;
ii) concentrate produced in the float cells reaches the required level of sulphur in the resultant slurry (17%) to allow effective chemical reactions in the Albion oxidation tanks;
iii) the required amount of oxygen is delivered to the Albion tanks and efficiently dispersed throughout the slurry to cause the chemical reaction within the tanks to occur efficiently, and after adequate retention time at high temperatures (95ºC), result in low residual sulphur in the slurry (2.5%).

All of the above requirements and operational parameters have become better understood after previous deficiencies in design and equipment were overcome last month. Feed rates and quality, and the plant operations, were erratic for the eight months following construction completion, and only from the beginning of March 2013 has the plant been able to be operated without significant interruption or volatility. The end result of the oxidation process which includes ultrafine grinding, concentration by flotation, oxidation, and cooling, should result in a slurry being delivered to the standard carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) circuit containing about 85% of the gold head grade in the feed, and 80% of silver head grade, with a sulphur content of 2.5%. The plant is nearing target parameters on all fronts of the Albion circuit, and it will be important to maintain throughput and plant stability to drive up gold and silver recoveries in the CIL circuit. Excess sulphur in the slurry entering the CIL circuit will reduce recovery.