Comstock Commences Operations

VIRGINIA CITY, NV - Comstock Mining Inc. has begun hauling ore from the Lucerne mine to its process area in American Flat. This marks the commencement of full mining activities and the highly anticipated return of mining to the historic Comstock Lode near Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada.

Mining commenced once the Company completed commissioning its new crushing facility. As a result, ore will now be crushed, agglomerated and stacked onto the newly expanded heap pads. During this period of time, the Company will also complete the commissioning of the expanded Merrill Crowe/refinery facility, fully completing the construction phase of Comstock's march to production. Once the Company has stacked a sufficient quantity of agglomerated ore, it will also introduce solution and commence the leaching processes. The addition of solution to the heap through a buried irrigation system will then initiate the recovery of gold and silver from the ore. The final step, pouring gold and silver Dore, will begin once a sufficient quantity of the precious metals has been captured by the Merrill Crowe's zinc precipitation process. The Company estimates the first pouring of gold and silver will occur in September.

"The last six months represents a tremendously focused march to production, effectively building our team, the mine and the entire operating facility," stated Corrado De Gasperis, President and CEO of Comstock. "On behalf of the entire Comstock Team, it is very satisfying to say that we are Nevada's Newest Gold and Silver Miner."

Once the complete mining and recovery process stabilizes from the initial start-up mode, the Company estimates production to quickly reach annual run rates of approximately one million tons of ore processed.  Based on the current mine plan, this should generate approximately 20,000 gold equivalent ounces per annum.