February 25, 2008: Anatolia Minerals Development
Limited ("Anatolia") [TSX: ANO] today announced an update for the oxide development phase of its
100%-owned ��pler Gold Project, located in east-central Turkey. This
initial phase of development anticipates mining the open-pittable oxide
portion of the deposit over a 10-year period, producing 1.8 million
ounces gold and 2.2 million ounces silver. Anatolia is also continuing
with the next stage of engineering studies for the ��pler sulfide gold
project open pit mining and processing operation, following completion of
its positive preliminary assessment regarding a potential additional
recovery of 2.3 million ounces gold from the sulfides at ��pler.
Anatolia recently resubmitted its Environmental Impact Assessment
("EIA") to the Turkish Ministry of Forest and Environment.. The
second meeting of the Ministry's Technical Committee is scheduled for
mid-March. Anatolia delayed resubmitting the EIA in order to complete
detailed engineering to fully support key processing facility elements,
reflecting additional requirements of the regulatory agencies. The
purpose of the meeting will be to formally respond to comments and
questions received by Anatolia from the Technical Committee in July 2007
and seek final approval of the EIA. The likelihood of a favorable outcome
cannot be determined, and it remains possible that Anatolia will be
requested to provide additional information. In the event the EIA is
approved and related permits are obtained in a timely manner, management
anticipates the 18-month construction period to commence during Q2 2008.
Engineering and procurement services for the oxide phase continued
during the preceding six months. Overall progress of EPCM services,
including engineering and procurement are estimated at 75% complete as of
January 31, 2008. The current design incorporates scope changes resulting
in part from the updated resource estimate and revised mine completed in
January 2007 (see Anatolia News Release, dated January 18, 2007).
The revised mine plan projects recovery of 1.8 million ounces gold,
which constitutes a 31% increase from the feasibility study. This
expansion required larger heap leach and tailings storage facilities to
accommodate the additional reserves and the relocation of process
facilities to improve access and material flows. Other scope changes
included relocating the tailings starter dam due to geotechnical
considerations, fully lining the tailings storage facility, enlarging
portions of the crushing and screening circuit, bringing forward
installation of an agglomerator for the heap leach plant, other refinements
to the processing facilities, providing company housing and expanding
some ancillary facilities.
Management expects development costs for the ��pler oxide phase to
increase approximately 60% to 80% over the original feasibility study
amount of US$125.7 million (see Anatolia News Release, dated April 20,
2006). The increase reflects scope changes and project expansion for the
increased reserves and production as outlined above (approximately 50% of
the increase), errors and omissions resulting from inherent limitations
of a feasibility study (approximately 15% of the increase) and
sector-related cost escalations relating to significantly higher
commodity prices, inflation and U.S. dollar devaluation (approximately
35% of the increase). The current advanced stage of procurement and
built-in contingencies provide reasonable certainty for 65% to 75% of
estimated development costs. Management continues to refine its estimate
as EPCM services progress and intends to provide a specific update in
conjunction with the results of the ongoing work to update the resource
estimate and mine plan as discussed below.
Anatolia conducted a significant drilling program at ��pler from Q4
2006 through December 2007. The drilling program included infill drilling
for mine planning optimization as well as some additional oxide and
sulfide resource delineation. Work is currently in process to incorporate
the 40,100 meters of additional drilling data into an updated resource
model and mine plan. The new mine plan will also lead to a full update of
estimated operating costs. Management believes the industry trend of
escalating costs will similarly affect operating cost estimates at
��pler. Upon completion of this work, sufficient data will be available
to update ��pler oxide economics for revised reserves, operating expenses
and capital costs estimates. Results are expected during Q2 2008, with an
independently prepared report compliant with Canada's National Instrument
43-101 standard for mineral disclosure to be filed on SEDAR shortly
thereafter.
Timothy J. Haddon, Chairman, commented, "Our delay in starting
construction is disappointing, however our team has produced a very high
quality work product consistent with our commitment to meet all Turkish
and international standards. We have kept the Turkish Ministries of
Forest and Environment, and Natural Resources and Energy current with our
work as it progressed and now look forward to the upcoming meeting."
Mr. Haddon added, "While we are also disappointed by the magnitude
of the increase in capital costs, the project has grown substantially
since the feasibility study was prepared in 2006. We remain, however,
very excited about the project, as well as Anatolia's substantial
exploration potential in Turkey.. With Ed Dowling coming on board as CEO
in April, we are confident ��pler will represent the first step in
building a significant mining company."
About Anatolia
Anatolia is developing its 100%-owned ��pler Oxide Gold
Project in Turkey. The initial phase of development anticipates mining
the open-pittable oxide portion of the deposit over a 10-year period,
producing 1.8 million ounces gold and 2.2 million ounces silver.
Anatolia is also continuing studies for a second phase expansion to
include future development of the ��pler Sulfide Gold Project. Positive
results from the preliminary assessment indicate potential additional
recovery of 2.3 million ounces gold over a 12 year period from the
sulfides at ��pler. This second phase could extend the total mine life to
over 20 years at assumed production rates or potentially increase
production several years into the initial oxide phase. See Anatolia News
Release, dated December 21, 2007 and the related Technical Report filed
at www.sedar.com.
As one of Turkey's leading minerals exploration companies,
Anatolia continues to seek aggressive growth through new discoveries as
it targets numerous potentially large-scale base metals and gold
opportunities.
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Anatolia currently has 83.1 million common shares issued and
outstanding, 99.4 million fully diluted. For more information: Timothy
Haddon, Chairman, or Douglas Tobler, Chief Financial Officer at (303)
292-1299 or visit www.anatoliaminerals.com. Anatolia trades on the Toronto Stock
Exchange as ANO.
Cautionary Statements
Certain
statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking
information, future oriented financial information, or financial outlooks
(collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning
of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to
this news release and other matters identified in Anatolia's public
filings, Anatolia's future outlook and anticipated events or results and,
in some cases, can be identified by terminology such as "may",
"will", "could", "should",
"expect", "plan", "anticipate",
"believe", "intend", "estimate",
"projects", "predict", "potential",
"continue" or other similar expressions concerning matters that
are not historical facts and include, but are not limited in any manner
to, those with respect to commodity prices, mineral resources, mineral
reserves, realization of mineral reserves, existence or realization of
mineral resource estimates, the timing and amount of future production,
the timing of construction of the proposed mine and process facilities,
capital and operating expenditures, and any and all other timing,
development, operational, financial, economic, legal, regulatory,
political factors that may influence future events or conditions. Such
forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and
assumptions, including, but not limited in any manner, those disclosed in
any other Anatolia filings, and include the ultimate determination of
mineral reserves, availability and final receipt of required approvals,
licenses and permits, sufficient working capital to develop and operate
the proposed mine, access to adequate services and supplies, commodity
prices, foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates, access to
capital markets and associated cost of funds, availability of a qualified
work force, and the ultimate ability to mine, process and sell mineral
products on economically favorable terms. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable
based on information currently available to us, they may prove to be
incorrect. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information
for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to risks and
uncertainties disclosed in other Anatolia filings at www.sedar.com and
other unforeseen events or circumstances. Other than as required by law,
Anatolia does not intend, and undertakes no obligation to update any
forward looking information to reflect, among other things, new information
or futures events.