Positive Prefeasibility Study For Caspiche Gold Deposit

VANCOUVER, BC - Exeter Resource Corporation reported that the Prefeasibility Study for its Caspiche Project in northern Chile has returned a pre-tax Net Present Value (5% discount), calculated from the time of commencement of the project, of US$ 2,800 million and average operating costs of US$ 606 per ounce gold equivalent1. The gold production cost drops to US$ 18 per ounce when copper and silver by-product credits are considered. The study predicts an average annual production over the nineteen year mine life of 696,000 ounces gold, 244 million pounds of copper and 844,000 ounces silver. Overall copper recovery is 85.6% and gold recovery 67.6%. A National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report covering the Prefeasibility Study has been filed.

Exeter Chairman Yale Simpson stated: "We are very pleased to have completed such a high quality study within a relatively short timeframe. The study benefited markedly by us having an excellent engineering team capable of recognizing early in the study process that the inclusion of in-pit crushing and conveying ("IPCC") systems could provide significant reductions in both capital and operating costs.

"In implementing IPCC in the Prefeasibility Study ("PFS"), Exeter is following the lead of several copper operations in Chile and Peru which are utilizing or developing high tonnage IPCC systems for the movement of waste rock. These include the Collahuasi, Escondida and Chuquicamata mines. Exeter has relied on the experience of Sandvik Mining and Construction, one of the leaders in IPCC technology to design a suitable system for Caspiche.

"With the PFS to hand we will now proceed with a stand-alone heap leach project feasibility study, hydrological mapping and geotechnical evaluations, an Environmental Impact Study submission, and metallurgical and process optimization studies. The Company treasury is more than adequate for the continued advancement of the project."

The PFS, completed by Aker Solutions (now Jacobs Engineering), evaluated three mining and processing options for the Caspiche deposit. All options included an open pit to mine the near surface heap leachable ore. The preferred development option is an open pit operation processing 150,000 tonnes per day of sulphide ore and a heap leach operation at an initial design production rate of 72,000 tonnes per day. The PFS envisages that the heap leach operation will start before the main concentrator with the leachable ore being removed as part of the pre-stripping operation. Total proven and probable ore reserves, generated from an updated resource estimate for the Super Pit are 1.091 billion tonnes containing 19.3 million ounces gold, 4.62 billion pounds copper, 41.5 million ounces silver. A key component of the PFS is the inclusion of high tonnage IPCC systems for the movement of waste rock. This achieves greater efficiencies in the movement of the pit overburden, not only to address rising operating costs for mining waste, but also the capital and operating costs involved in the construction of tailings dam walls using conventional methods.

The company's address is Suite 1660, 999 West Hastings St., Vancouver, BC V6C 2W2, email: [email protected].