The Kyzyl project encompasses re-development of the Bakyrchik underground mine and the construction of a new pro-cessing plant incorporating fluidized-bed ore-roasting technology. “With our success-ful and continuing resource delineation and reserve conversion, the confirmation of the gold recovery process, and the support of the government of Kazakhstan, we are pleased to be in a position now to start the construction and development of a state-of-the-art operation that will integrate the best available technology and launch a new era of gold production in the region,” Altynalmas President and CEO David Woodall said.

Mine production is planned at a rate of 1.5 million mt/y. Pre-production capital ex-penditures are estimated at $1.124 bil-lion. Cash costs of production are estimat-ed at $483/oz, and total production costs are estimated at $759/oz.

Two-stage fluidized-bed roasting tech-nology would recover 88% of the con-tained gold. Altynalmas adopted this pro-cessing approach based on pilot-plant test work supervised by Crescent Technology and undertaken by Hazen Research over the past three years. Integral to the process is the scrubbing of gases liberated during roasting and, in particular, the development of an innovative and propri-etary ore treatment process that produces an environmentally stable iron arsenate mineral byproduct that meets internation-al environmental standards. Altynalmas has filed a provisional patent application covering the technology with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and with Kazakh authorities.

Altynalmas Gold is continuing its drilling program to expand and upgrade the NI 43-101 compliant inferred and indicated resource estimate at the Kyzyl project. Exploration drilling totaled 84,552 m in 2011 and is planned at 40,000 m in 2012.

The gold deposits at the Kyzyl project consist of a series of mineralized lenses, or lodes, lying within the large Kyzyl shear zone. Gold mineralization is hosted within sheared, carbonaceous sediments of the fault zones and principally is contained within arsenopyrite sulphide mineralization occurring in association with quartz stock-works, which crosscut and parallel the foli-ation of the sediments.

Recent significant drill intercepts of high-grade gold mineralization, which approximate true widths and confirm the higher-grade zones within the Bakyrchik resource wire-frames, include 27 m grading 16.42 g/mt gold and 22 m grading 18.69 g/mt gold in Lens 1; 5 m grading 9.71 g/mt gold in Lens 9; and 3 m grading 46.20 g/mt gold and 13 m grading 8.68 g/mt gold in Lens 12.