Scorpio Mining Corporation Provides Nuestra Senora Project Update, Sinaloa State, Mexico by 24hgold

Mots clés associés : Copper | G Mexico | Zinc |

Re: News Releases - Thursday, February 14, 2008
Title: Scorpio Provides Nuestra Senora Project Update, Sinaloa State, Mexico

Vancouver, February 14, 2008 - Scorpio Mining Corporation (TSX:SPM) is pleased to provide an update on its progress toward commencing production at the 100% owned Nuestra Senora project, Sinaloa State, Mexico.

Peter J. Hawley, Chairman, CEO comments, "The Scorpio team has been aggressively pushing on all fronts to meet the mandated start up in March 2008 of the Nuestra Senora mill facility. Not only is the team succeeding but they have also progressed other major projects such as Company housing for the mine workers. The team effort shown is greatly appreciated by the Company and we all look forward to becoming a low cost producer in the near future, especially given the current strong metal prices which should only enhance the economics and cash flow of the mine."

PROGRESS UPDATE

Mill Construction

The Company is expecting the mill facility to start up on March 31, 2008. After start up, the schedule includes 8 weeks of verification of the equipment and commissioning. Initial processing, including commissioning, for the first three months April - June is projected to average 500 tonnes per day through the mill. The purpose of this preliminary production is to determine reagent consumption and optimize the recovery of metals. Once this has been achieved, through put will be increased to approximately 1,000 tonnes per day commencing in July 2008.
Construction of the Company's 100% owned, dedicated 34-kilometre power line from the main hydro dam to the mill facility is still scheduled for completion later this month, including the building of electrical sub-stations at the hydro dam and at the mill site.
All major mill equipment required for processing is on site and installed and nearing completion and the Company currently foresees no delays in the planned start up.
Mill construction continues on schedule with two 10-hour shifts per day and manpower at the mill site consisting of 268 workers over all, with 81 welders and 40 other workers dedicated to the mill construction and the remainder on piping and tanks, etc.
The entire mill structure has been completed and the roof coverings are being installed.
Both 800-horsepower 10x10 ball mills have been assembled and will be aligned in the coming weeks.
The twelve 300 cu. ft. flotation tanks have been installed and the remaining six 50 cu. ft. cells are being constructed and will be installed in early March. The three drum filters for the zinc, lead and copper circuits have been mounted in place.
The mill office has been erected as has the electrical control room. The electrical switch gear and sub station are completed and the electrical circuitry is well advanced.
The three concentrate and three tailings thickeners are nearing completion and will be ready the first week of March.
The grizzly, primary crusher (with a capacity rated at 2,000 tonnes per day) and secondary cone crusher have been installed within the building structure and the control room is nearing completion.
Currently the Company has 2 heavy lift cranes and 3 boom trucks on site.
The conveyor structure is in progress with 20 men dedicated to its construction. The conveyors and supports are scheduled to be completed by the second week of March.
The Company has installed five office trailers joined as one unit with a working space of 230 m3 to supply temporary accommodations for the base camp, warehouse and office-construction-supervision personnel during the construction of the mill facility.
Telecom of M�xico has completed the installation of a main communications tower at the mill site facility which will supply telephone lines, internet connections and video feed for mill site surveillance.
A cement plant next to the by-pass road, proximal to the mill facility site and Company housing site, is fully operational and over 3,500 cubic meters of cement has been poured. The cement foundation work for the entire mill facility project has been completed. The cement plant will continue to supply concrete for the by-pass road culverts, the town site and the drainage tunnel for the tailings pond.
Ore stockpile inventory as of the end of January 2008 was 69,044 tonnes consisting of 67,665 tonnes at the mill site and 1,379 tonnes at the Nuestra Senora mine portal.
The Company is in the final stages of establishing commercial smelter agreements and once finalized further details will be released.

By Pass Road - Housing

The 4.3 kilometre Cosala by-pass road has been completed. This road was used for moving oversized mill equipment, trailers, etc. for installation at the mill facility and, in the future will facilitate the transfer of daily metal concentrates to smelters without impacting the town of Cosala with heavy traffic.
Construction work on the permanent facility camp is 60% complete, and when finished it will house 62 persons in 24 houses. This facility is being built on 14 hectares of land that the Company has purchased which is ideally situated on both sides of the Company's Cosala by-pass road. The site has electrical power and is connected to the municipality's water supply and sewage system. This land purchase is a cost effective measure allowing the Company to build houses for personnel and construct its own core logging and equipment storage facilities rather than rent these facilities. The Company also plans to build an office on the site and relocate all its support staff from the current office in Cosala to the new facility.

Tailings Pond and Dam Construction

Work on the tailings storage facility is progressing well.
All organic matter has been removed from the impoundment area for Phase 1, which represents the first and lower portion of the tailings pond. This organic material is being stored on the mill site and will be used for re-forestation. This initial phase will accommodate tailings produced by the mill for the first year. Phase 2, scheduled for later this year, will have sufficient capacity for years 2 through 5.
The pond area will be lined with a 30-cm sub-base layer of gravel covered by a 10-cm layer of fine sand/silt and overlain by an impermeable geo-membrane to prevent leakage of the tailings water into the underlying strata.
The contouring of the pond area and sub-base for the liner is 30% complete.
Dam construction is 35% complete and is now progressing at a rate of 9,000 m� of dam and lining material per week.
The tailings pond and dam are projected to be completed during the last week of March.

Water Supply for the Mill

A six (6) inch water pipe line covering 4.5 km has been established from the mill site to the mine site river location with cement holding tanks at river level completed. The entire infrastructure, including concrete work and pumping stations, will be completed before mill start up.
A water storage tank has been constructed on the mill site which can supply 1 million litres of water on demand.
Although it is planned to re-circulate some 80% of the process water, the water supply system will have the capacity to supply 100% of the mill needs. The system is projected to be completed during early March.

Underground Development

As of the end of January 2008, underground development at Nuestra Senora, has progressed to where 1,609.6 metres (1.6 kilometres) of the main 4 x 5 metre ramp had been completed, together with 6,134.6 metres of 4 x 4 metre development cross-cuts and access points.
During one 10-hour shift, the Company is currently capable of moving over 1,550 tonnes of waste/ore from stope development and preparation activities in three zones to the mill site. This only requires eight 12 cubic meter trucks completing in total 82 trips per shift. The number of trucks could be increased which supports management's view that the Company can easily haul from underground the 1,000 tonnes per day initially projected for mill feed.
The initial full-scale mining is planned to start from the lower grade Hoag zone where primary and secondary blocks have been outlined. Each primary block contains approximately 23,000 tonnes on level 10.5 and between 30,000 to 45,000 tonnes on level 10. Long-hole drilling of the blocks from the level 10 to the 10.5 (15 metres) level will begin later in February 2008, with the first blasting of blocks slated for March 2008. In total, five blocks have been excavated at the bottom and the top to facilitate the drilling of long-holes in preparation for blasting; development is still ongoing to prepare the others. Two other blocks are currently ready to be drilled.
The Alimak ventilation raise from the 6th level of the Nuestra Senora mine to the adjacent Candelaria mine has been completed and installation of the vent fan system will be completed by July.
The access ramp connecting the Candelaria mine with the main ramp of the Nuestra Senora mine is 30% complete. Once finished, this access will permit mining of the higher grade Candelaria mineralization and facilitate additional development and exploration.

Surface and Underground Exploration

The Company currently has three underground diamond drill rigs performing in-fill delineation drilling for areas of exploitation as well as conducting exploration drilling. This includes targeting the zones outlined by the recent successful surface drilling of the Santa Teresa and Santo Domingo satellite deposits, and other areas based on new exploration models established from ongoing underground structural mapping.
The Company began surface exploration drilling on January 24, 2008 focusing on the favourable rocks north and west of the Nuestra Senora Deposit. Recent structural data gathered from ongoing development strongly suggests that the north-trending Main Zone is displaced by an east-west trending fault called the Hoag Fault. Locating the displaced portion could add significantly to the current estimated resource.
On February 5, 2008 the Company began a geophysical program of down-hole pulse electrical magnetic (DHPEM) surveying to determine if this technology will accurately locate known mineralized bodies within the Nuestra Senora Project. If found to be successful, the Company's ability to discover additional mineralization or new mineralized bodies will be greatly enhanced.

President, Mr. D. Roger Scammell, PGeo, is the Company's Qualified Person for the Nuestra Senora project. Mr. Scammell is responsible for the current exploration and development program and has reviewed the content of this release.

ON BEHALF OF SCORPIO MINING CORPORATION

Peter J. Hawley
Chairman & CEO

For further information contact:
Glenn Little, Jackson Little Holdings Ltd: 604-930-4375; 1-888-930-4375
Email: jlconsulting@telus.net
Rich Kaiser, YES International: 1-800-631-8127; 001-757-306-6090 (outside North America)
Email: yes@yesinternational.com

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future construction activities, mine development, exploration drilling, exploration activities and other events or developments that the Company expects, are forward looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include construction difficulties or delays, metal prices, exploration success, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions.

Copyright © 2008 SCORPIO MINING CORPORATION (SPM) All rights reserved. For more information visit our website at http://www.scorpiomining.com/ or send email to scorpio@scorpiomining.com ..
Message sent on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 2:35:27 PM Pacific Time

Légende
	Production
	Mine développement
	Découverte
	Exploration
	Ancien producteur
Sur Google Earth, cliquez sur les pictogrammes, pour voir les informations du projet, accéder à sa page, ou à la page de la compagnie.