VANCOUVER, B.C., Aug. 30, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Santa Rosa Property is a 100% undivided interest under ownership and option by Andean American. The Santa Rosa properties are located 550 km southeast of Lima, Peru. The Santa Rosa Pilot Plant Project is not part of the joint venture with Placer Dome del Peru and is 100% to the benefit of Andean American.
Andean American Mining Corp. (CDNX:AAG) is pleased to announce continuous production began August 15th 2001. A brief start-stop tune up of the production facilities occurred between August 2nd - 14th followed by continuous production of leachable material since that date. The current operating rate varies between 500 - 700 tonnes per day. Approximately 11,000 tonnes are now on the leach pad. We currently employ 83 people on site.
The current production schedule is to initiate against the following milestone dates:
-- Begin leachate circulation...............August 30th -- Begin adsorption.........................September 4th -- Begin desorption ........................September 9th -- Ship concentrates to Lima................September 15th - 20th
Stripping ratio to date has been only 0.12 to 1.0, a good improvement against estimate. On the other hand, transport has overrun by 22% offsetting the gains. There are some adjustments to operating procedures planned for the future to allow for smoothing of production. These include:
-- The addition of in-pit vibratory screening
-- An additional fines circuit (3/4 minus) direct from pit to
agglomeration
-- 3" minus circuit direct from pit to secondary crusher
-- Quadrupling of the carbon in column capacity
-- In-pit ripping, in addition to drilling and blasting
With these adjustments made, production should be able to achieve 1,200 to 1,400 tpd capacity. The silver precipitation circuit will also be introduced for October of this year. Other operational challenges are to have sufficient coarse material identified and stockpiled prior to the beginning of the rainy season in late October/early November. The site geological team has successfully verified the necessary tonnage and grade all within current development of the open pit for the Santa Rosa Dome. The geological model is holding together much better than expected. The original drilling was accomplished on 50 meter by 25 meter centres. The pit development drilling is on a 2 meter by 1 meter pattern and produces much denser information. The pleasant surprises are the continuity of mineralization over and above the initial resource estimate.
Andean management will review the contents of this disclosure during today's conference call. As is standard, management will make opening comments and will then open the lines for questions. A transcript of the call as well as audio CDs will be made available to all interested parties. To take part in the call, please dial Toll Free, 1-800-346-7359. Those dialing in from outside North America may call 1-973-528-0008. The call will be held at 2 p.m., EST, today, Thursday, August 30, 2001. Beginning one hour following the termination of the live call, playbacks can be accessed by dialing 1-800-332-6854 and entering the following codes; ID code 0008 -- Password 8196, when prompted to do so.
For further information, please contact: John Devlin at 1-866-885-0484 or jdevlin@aag-cdnx.com, or the Company at phone: (604) 681-6186, toll free: 1-888-356-4784, and fax: (604) 681-3652, email: info@andeanamerican.com or info@aag-cdnx.com, Web site: www.andeanamerican.com
On behalf of Andean American Mining Corp. John F. Huguet President & CEO
This news release may contain forward-looking statements regarding upcoming work programs and events. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Canadian Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.