Midway Advances Toward First Gold Pour

 

DENVER - Midway Gold Corp. reported on the construction progress at its Pan gold project in Nevada. Pan is in late stage construction with a first gold pour expected in January 2015. A US$55M Project Finance Facility with Commonwealth Bank of Australia was closed in July 2014 with first draw on the loan expected in November.

Ken Brunk, Midways President and CEO stated, Midway continues to advance steadily to gold production at Pan. This milestone is what we have worked so hard toward these past few years. The reward for the effort is near. Our successes at Pan include permitting in record time, securing our debt financing in an extremely selective environment, and the placement of a hedging program to help protect our operations in an uncertain gold price environment. We are benefiting from the employment of contract mining at very competitive costs to all-in owner mining and have utilized Run-of-Mine leaching on South Pan to harness further potential for efficiencies. We believe our current cash on hand in combination with the expected draws on the debt financing will be sufficient to fund construction at Pan as well as working capital requirements through startup. We continue to look for ways to remain cost efficient in this environment while maintaining a strong core from which to grow.

To that effect, we continue to advance the Environmental Impact Statement process at our second project, Gold Rock, to achieve a targeted second quarter 2015 Record of Decision. Even further, we have worked to realize additional value to our shareholders with impressive resource growth at Spring Valley this year. We are continually thankful to our Midway team for their perseverance through the volatility of these markets and we are all looking ahead to operations and cash flow in 2015.

Milestones at Pan: Pregnant solution pond is complete and final integrity tests were completed in October; The barren pond is now completed and undergoing final integrity tests; Storm related repairs are complete; Carbon columns and other related equipment are set in place; Mining commenced in September and approximately 500,000 tons have been placed on the leach pad; Staffing of Ledcor is currently at 3 crews covering 2 shifts per day with 24/7 operations expected to commence by month end; Pan operations staff have moved to site from the Ely offices; Detailed start-up planning is well underway and operating training has commenced.