Atna Ramping Up Operations At Pinson Mine

                       

GOLDEN, CO - Atna Resources Ltd. reported that the Company sold a total of 33,150 ounces of gold in 2014 producing approximately $41 million in revenue. Atna anticipates producing between 55,000 and 65,000 ounces from its Pinson and Briggs mines in 2015. The ramp-up in operations at Pinson is expected to materially add to Atna's overall gold production. Atna ended the year with a cash balance of $2.1 million and reduced net debt by approximately $3.4 million.

In June 2014, Atna commenced test mining operations at the Pinson Underground Mine in Humboldt County, Nevada. "A number of changes, including those in mine planning, mining method, operating and processing contracts, and mine management, allowed for a successful restart. These changes have had a positive impact on the cost of operations at Pinson and demonstrated the potential profitability of this operation under current gold market conditions. As a result, Atna is increasing the mining rate at Pinson," stated James Hesketh, President & CEO.

Notable progress and advances include the following:

  • Pinson entered into ore sale agreements to sell both oxide and refractory sulfide ores to the nearby Twin Creeks operation of Newmont. These agreements include the ability to sell small lots of ore, thus reducing working capital requirements. The close proximity of Twin Creeks to Pinson (8 miles) substantially reduced ore transportation cost.

  • Sulfide ore gold recovery has averaged 94% to 95% in the Twin Creeks autoclave facility, a substantial improvement over the 85% to 86% recovery achieved when Pinson sulfide ore was processed in a roasting facility in 2013.

  • Pinson successfully tested its first long-hole mining stope, so far producing approximately 6,300 tons of ore at a grade of 0.357 ounces per ton from a stope measuring 100 feet long by 45 feet high and 40 feet wide. This test proved the quality of ground conditions and rock strength required to support this low-cost mining method. Prior mining had exclusively utilized the substantially higher-cost underhand cut-and-fill mining method.

  • Mine plans have been developed to optimize production and costs, using long-hole stoping wherever feasible.

  • A local underground mining contractor was retained on a productivity-based mining contract, replacing the previous time and material contract. This has resulted in substantially lower mining costs than were experienced in the 2012-2013 development of Pinson.

  • The ability to screen waste rock from mined ores with a three-inch screen deck is increasing the grade of ores shipped and reducing shipped tonnages, resulting in lower transportation and process costs with a negligible loss of gold content.

The June restart of operations at Pinson commenced with a single operating crew, working four days per week, 10-hours per day. Total ore production in the second half of 2014, a start-up and testing period, totaled 10,100 tons at a grade of 0.376 ounces per ton. Sales totaled 7,830 tons at a grade of 0.375 ounces per ton containing approximately 2,950 ounces. Remaining tons at year-end were stockpiled for shipment in January 2015. All of the ore mined in 2014 originated from the Ogee zone.

A second operating crew was added and the site is now working on a 24 hour per day, four day per week schedule. A total of six working faces have been developed, and additional operating crews will be added as working faces become available. Two of these working faces have been developed in the Otto zone to the east of the Ogee zone. Atna anticipates recovering between 30,000 and 35,000 ounces from Pinson in 2015.

At the Briggs Mine, located in Inyo County, California, in the fourth quarter of 2014, mining in the Goldtooth pit was finished and pre-stripping operations of the Briggs Main North (BMN) pit were also completed. The BMN pit will provide feed to the crusher through August of 2015. At that time, process operations will focus on recovering the approximately 18,000 ounces of estimated recoverable gold inventory contained on the leach pad and in the plant at Briggs. This process operation is likely to continue recovering gold into early 2017. This strategy will allow Briggs to produce between 25,000 to 30,000 ounces of gold in 2015 at AISC costs below $1,000 per ounce. Additional mining areas may become viable at Briggs with a sustained gold price above $1,300 per ounce.

An NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report on the Mag Open Pit at Pinson was also completed in September 2014. This study demonstrates an attractive economic return for the Mag pit as an open pit, heap leach operation at a gold price of $1,250. Atna anticipates mine permitting activity to begin on this project in 2015.