Lisbon Valley Copper Mine, San Juan County, Utah
Production Update
Denver, Colorado, April 10, 2007 - Constellation Copper Corporation (CCU: TSX) wishes to report production data for its wholly-owned Lisbon Valley copper mine located in San Juan County, Utah.
The first quarter showed good improvement in the operating parameters of the plant. Pregnant leach solution (PLS) flow rates to the plant increased from 4140 gallons per minute (gpm) to 4908 gpm, an increase of 19%. The daily plating rate of copper in the electrowinning facility increased from almost 60,000 pounds per day to almost 90,000 pounds per day.
Copper production for the quarter was 5,391,000 pounds (all LME Grade A). The company carried an inventory of 329,000 pounds into April.
Sales in March totaled 1,724,000 pounds of cathode copper at an average price of $2.76/lb. Cathode harvested during the month totaled 1,776,000 pounds. This is below expectations and guidance as the plant continued to cope with cold weather issues and associated flow limitations throughout most of the month.
The conversion of the solvent extraction circuit to 5,000 gpm flow was fully commissioned on March 29th. This is an increase of 16% over original design capacity. The increase in settling capacity will allow us to operate at full flow during periods of extreme cold, which caused reduced flows in January through March. We are forecasting copper production for the second quarter of 2007 of 8 million pounds of cathode copper.
Crushing and stacking throughput has also increased significantly with improvement in weather conditions. Ore through the system has averaged 17,400 tons per day for the first week of April, a 30% improvement over the average for March and a 35% improvement over the average for the first quarter. More tons to the pad, along with higher grades predicted by the mine plan as we go deeper into the ore bodies, should be reflected in higher PLS grades and thus higher copper production as we go forward.
In other related matters, The Mine Plan Amendments for the Centennial Pit expansion, Intermediate Leach Solution (ILS) Pond construction and re-design of the Stage 3 and Stage 4 Leach Pad expansions have all been approved by the BLM and the State of Utah. Construction of the Stage 3 Leach Pad and ILS Pond are scheduled to commence in early May. Once completed, the ILS Pond will establish a staged leaching process designed to further increase PLS grade and increase copper cathode production through the remainder of 2007.
On the exploration front, our extended exploration Plan of Operations was approved by the BLM, and we anticipate approval from the State of Utah in the next few weeks. The plan covers an area of approximately seven square miles in the area of lower Lisbon Valley and includes the approval for drilling of up to 175 drill holes in several target areas. Once final approval is received we will stake specific hole locations
and seek archaeological clearance of each proposed drill site before commencing exploration drilling operations. A phased approach to the drilling of these new target areas will be undertaken with drilling slated to start in the next few months. Drilling continues at the Flying Diamond deposit and we expect to announce additional drill results during the month of April.
We are pleased that we have most of the cold weather issues behind us, and look forward to increasing our copper production month-to-month as we go forward.
With the improvement in operations commencing in April we will henceforth report production on a quarterly basis only, as is more customary for the industry, and provide quarterly production guidance until we achieve steady-state operations later in 2007.
Micheal Attaway, VP-Operations and a Professional Engineer, is the Qualified Person responsible for the content of this release.
For further information please contact:
Constellation Copper Corporation
Gregory A. Hahn, President & CEO
Michelle Hebert, Manager-Corporate Affairs
Tel: (720) 228-0055
Toll Free: 1-877-370-5400
Fax: (303) 863-1736
info@constellationcopper.com
www.constellationcopper.com
Renmark Financial Communications Inc.
Neil Murray-Lyon : nmurraylyon@renmarkfinancial.com
Barbara Komorowski : bkomorowski@renmarkfinancial.com
Media - Lynda Martineau lmartineau@ren
markfinancial.com
Tel. : (514) 939-3989
Fax : (514) 939-3717
www.renmarkfinancial.com
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to changes in commodity and power prices, changes in
interest and currency exchange rates, inaccurate geological and metallurgical assumptions (including with respect to the size, grade and recoverability of mineral reserves and resources), unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters), political risk, social unrest, and changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.&n
BSP; THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WILL PROVE TO BE ACCURATE, AS ACTUAL RESULTS AND FUTURE EVENTS COULD DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM THOSE ANTICIPATED IN SUCH STATEMENTS.  ACCORDINGLY, READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE RELIANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS.