Searchlight Minerals Corp. provides Clarkdale operations update

Tag : minerals
Searchlight Minerals Corp. provides Clarkdale operations update
HENDERSON, NV, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Searchlight MineralsCorp. (OTCBB: SRCH) (the "Company"), is pleased to provideinvestors with the following update on development and constructionactivities at its Clarkdale Slag Project in Clarkdale, Arizona.
UPDATED STATUS REPORT
Searchlight Minerals continues to report significant progresstowards the completion of the Company's initial 100 to 250ton-per-day (tpd) commercial production module for the extractionof precious and base metals from a 20 million-ton slag pile inClarkdale, Arizona.
The slag pile is located approximately six miles from the historicUnited Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Arizona, which produced some ofthe richest copper ore ever mined in the U.S. Clarkdale housed asmelter operation for the United Verde Mine, and when smeltingactivities ceased in 1947, a metal-bearing slag pile was left atthe Clarkdale site. Independent engineers, operating underchain-of-custody procedures, have estimated that the slag pile iscomprised of approximately 20.2 million tons of material thatcontains approximately 0.50 ounces of gold per ton, along withsilver, copper, zinc and a ferro silicate byproduct.
Thus far during 2008, the Company has completed the renovation ofan existing 26,000 sq. ft. building at the Clarkdale site and hasreceived the final Certificate of Occupancy from the Town ofClarkdale. This building houses most of the components of theinitial full-scale production module, including crushing, grinding,leaching, filtering and ion exchange (IX) circuits. Presently, allmajor equipment items, including conveyor systems, impact mills, avibratory mill, leaching tanks, filter presses, ion exchangesystems and lab equipment, have been installed in the building.
The vast majority of operations related to the production ofprecious and base metals are anticipated to occur within thisprimary processing facility. The electrowinning (EW) process, whichconverts copper and zinc from solution to plated metal, will behoused in a separate building that is currently under construction.The EW building is on schedule for completion in November 2008.
The Company recently completed the connection of its onsite well tothe primary processing building. This step eliminates the need formunicipal water and gives the Company complete control over theprocess water supply. The screening plant for the demonstrationphase has been delivered to the site, which allows the Company tobegin processing the raw slag for use in the process. The Companyhas also completed extensive demolition and preliminary grading onan approximately 12 acre site adjacent to the slag pile. That siteis anticipated to serve as the location for the facilitiesexpansion planned in full production.
CURRENT FOCUS
The Company is now actively engaged in the testing and start-upphase of the project. Currently, equipment is being tested, and itis anticipated that this will be followed by the integration of allmajor equipment components, including the crushing, grinding,leaching and filtering circuits. Component integration involves thefabrication, installation and connection of the equipment circuitsto each other and to the buildings' centralized electrical,plumbing and air-flow systems. Testing and start-up of the fullproduction module is anticipated to commence when systemsintegration is complete. However, since grinding represents one ofthe most critical aspects of the production process, a bypasssystem is being installed that will allow for separate testing andstart-up of the grinding circuit, while work continues to completethe integration of the remaining circuits.
Systems integration plumbing on the grinding circuit is expected tobe completed in October 2008, electrical systems integration isapproximately 80% complete, and the air-flow and pump systems thatmove material through the circuit are being installed. A short termbypass in the materials flow system will allow for startup andtesting of the grinding circuit in October 2008.
FUTURE MILESTONES
"While progress towards the completion of a fully functioningproduction module continues, it remains difficult for us to predictwith great precision when specific future milestones will beattained," stated Ian McNeil , Chief Executive Officer of Searchlight Minerals Corp. "Forexample, the recent Gulf Coast hurricane caused an unanticipateddelay in the delivery of certain equipment. Nonetheless, our teamcontinues to do a marvelous job in achieving day-to-day engineeringand construction goals. The Company has often been able toreallocate resources when minor delays occur, in order to advancecompletion dates in other areas."
CONCLUSION
"The startup process is comprised of a very complex series ofinterconnected events that depend on a large number of movingparts," noted McNeil. "We are still on track to be processing slagmaterial through the grinding circuit by the end of October 2008,and through the other circuits in the main process building shortlythereafter. The Company remains in position to complete the EWbuilding by the end of November 2008 and to have a fullyoperational production facility by the end of 2008."
The objective of this update, and others that will follow, is toallow our stockholders to more fully appreciate the Company'sinterim accomplishments and progress towards its stated goals andobjectives.
About Searchlight Minerals Corp.
Searchlight Minerals Corp. is a minerals exploration companyfocused on the acquisition and development of projects in thesouthwestern United States. The Company is currently involved intwo projects: (1) the Clarkdale Slag Project, located in Clarkdale,Arizona, is a reclamation project to recover precious and basemetals from the reprocessing of slag produced from the smelting ofcopper ores mined at the United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome,Arizona; and (2) the Searchlight Gold Project, which involvesexploration for precious metals on mining claims near Searchlight,Nevada. The Clarkdale Project is the more advanced of two ongoingprojects that the Company is pursuing. The Searchlight Gold Projectis an early-stage gold exploration endeavor on 3,200 acres locatedapproximately 50 miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Searchlight Minerals Corp. is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada,and its common stock is listed on the OTC Bulletin Board under thesymbol "SRCH". Additional information is available on the Company'swebsite at www.searchlightminerals.com and in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and ExchangeCommission.
Forward-Looking Statements
This Press Release may contain, in addition to historicalinformation, forward-looking statements. Statements in this newsrelease that are forward-looking statements are subject to variousrisks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosedunder the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company'speriodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.When used in this news release, the words such as "could," "plan","estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should", andsimilar expressions, are forward-looking statements. The riskfactors that could cause actual results to differ from theseforward-looking statements include, but are not restricted to theCompany's limited operating history, uncertainties about theavailability of additional financing, geological or mechanicaldifficulties affecting the Company's planned geological or otherwork programs, uncertainty of estimates of mineralized material,operational risk, environmental risk, financial risk, currency riskand other statements that are not historical facts as disclosedunder the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company'speriodic filings with securities regulators in the United States.Consequently, risk factors including, but not limited to theaforementioned, may result in significant delays to the projectedor anticipated production target dates.
SOURCE Searchlight Minerals Corp.