Technical Report Recommends Development

GOLDEN, CO - Atna Resources Ltd. reported that it has filed an NI 43-101 technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Reward Gold Project, Nye County, Nevada." The Technical Report, prepared by Chlumsky, Armbrust & Meyer LLC of Lakewood, Colorado, envisions development of a conventional open pit mine, ore crushing, and heap leach operation. The Technical Report recommends development of the 100 percent owned Reward Gold Project and Atna is working to fulfill permitting requirements to enable development of the project.
The Reward operation is expected to produce approximately 117,000 ounces of gold over a four year mine life at estimated average cash costs of $409 per ounce of gold produced. This production would provide an undiscounted cash flow of $14.6 million and an internal rate of return ("IRR") of 13.2 percent at a $700 gold price. The report includes capital costs for crushing and process plants, facilities and infrastructure, mining fleet and pre-production stripping of $24.3 million. Break-even full cost inclusive of capital is $564 per ounce. At a gold price of $900 per ounce, the project would develop an internal rate of return of 32.8 percent and an undiscounted net cash flow of approximately $36 million without allowance for reserve expansion.
The report developed an alternative case using a $700 gold price pit design that contains a measured and indicated resource of 6.4 million tons grading 0.025 opt with a waste to ore strip ratio of 2.2 using a variable cutoff grade. This case would require an additional $1.1 million in pre-production capital over the base case. This larger pit is expected to produce 134,100 ounces of gold over a five year mine life at an estimated average cash cost of $412 per ounce.
Initial capital costs can be reduced in both the $575 and $700 cases by using contract mining. Based on actual contract mining quotes, initial capital purchases for mining equipment and shops can be reduced by approximately $7.5 million, while overall life-of-mine mining costs are increased by approximately $5.3 million for the $575 pit case and higher in the $700 pit case. Further studies will be completed and reviewed comparing the use of contract mining versus owner mining prior to development.
Mining operations at Reward would utilize conventional 100-ton open pit trucks and compatible loaders. Mined ore will be crushed to minus 3/8 inch and placed on a lined pad for leaching and gold recovery. Process solutions will be captured in solution tanks and circulated through activated carbon to capture contained gold. This loaded carbon would subsequently be dewatered, packaged, and transported for final gold recovery to either the CR Briggs Mine in Inyo County, California or to a third party processing facility.
The company's address is Suite 510 - 510 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC V6C 3A8, 604.684.2285, fax: 604.684.8887.