Activities Report

 
TIDMHMB 
 
 

Hambledon Mining Plc

("Hambledon" or "the Company")

Activities Report for the Quarter Ended 31 March 2011

Hambledon Mining plc (AIM: HMB), the Kazakhstan gold mining and development company, today provides its operational report for the three months from 1 January 2011 to 31 March 2011. A copy of this announcement will be available on the Company's website, www.hambledon-mining.com

Q1 OPERATIONAL & CORPORATE OVERVIEW

Open Pit Production

 
 
    -- Year-on-year quarterly recoverable gold increased by 72.5% 
 
    -- Production levels in line with management expectations 
 
    -- Successful completion of Phase 1 winterisation programme and equipment 

upgrade

Underground Development

 
 
    -- First gold extraction from underground remains on target to start 

before the end of 2011

Underground Exploration

 
 
    -- First eight drill hole results received from planned 18 month 

underground drill campaign of approximately 25,000 metres

Fundraising

 
 
    -- GBP9.09 million (GBP8.6 million net of expenses) raised through placing 

and open offer in March

Tim Daffern, Chief Executive Officer of Hambledon, commented today: "We are delighted to have achieved so much, both operationally and corporately, during our most challenging quarter of the year. In spite of some severe weather conditions, production levels increased by over 70% from this time last year, and we are confident that the plant upgrades completed during this quarter will serve the Company well in the months ahead. Underground extraction remains on course for the end of 2011 and significant progress was made, both with the drill bit, and with necessary studies to ensure low cost production underground. Finally, on behalf of the Board, I would like to welcome those shareholders that invested in the Company in March as part of the placing and open offer as well as to thank our existing shareholders for their continued support of Hambledon."

Production figures for the three months from 1 January - 31 March 2011:

 
                          January    February    March     Total 
Milled tonnes (dry)       26,111     53,834      63,662    141,317 
Gold grade (g/t)          1.26       1.18        1.11      1.16 
Contained gold (gms)      32,465     63,807      67,644    163,916 
Contained gold (oz)       1,043      2,051       2,174     5,268 
Gold recovery %           85.7       78.9        88.1      84.0 
Recovered gold (oz)       931        1,594       1,924     4,449 
Recovered silver (oz)     1,800      2,474       3,236     7,510 
 
 

PROCESSING FROM OPEN PIT

The first quarter of 2011 was a considerable improvement on the first quarter in 2010, with gold output approximately 70% higher. The Sekisovskoye mining operation and the metallurgical plant achieved notable levels of production in line with budgeted expectations. Mining activities were primarily from the main open pit, with modest amounts of ore extracted from the north pit. Although the weather was severe, especially in January, Phase 1 of the winterisation programme and newly installed equipment, along with a revised maintenance strategy helped to mitigate some of its effects.

A component of the revised maintenance strategy was to shut the process plant down for a set period in January to replace key crushing and screening equipment, when daily temperatures that were below minus 40°C had necessitated suspension of normal operations.

UNDERGROUND

The decline to access the underground deposit advanced according to plan during the quarter with no safety incidents. The development of the underground project remains on target for extraction commencing in Q4, 2011.

Equipment purchases commenced with a Load Haul Dump loading unit being ordered from Aramine in France. Detailed discussions with two short listed vendors for a five year plant, machinery and maintenance agreement are well advanced. Hambledon intends to maximise the use of the existing contractor for construction work and develop the ore extraction by the use of its own fleet and employees. Recruitment of staff commenced in Q1 2011, with the underground workforce supporting the resource delineation programme, and installing ventilation equipment and installing electrical reticulation.

The '320 shaft' surface buildings have been completed and are facilitating a 24 hour operation with attendant maintenance and medical staff.

Detailed engineering studies for the expanded underground project have commenced with engineers from Golders Associates visiting the site. Benchmarking studies of other Kazakhstan mines, life of mine planning and integrated waste planning studies will underpin an efficient mine design.

DRILLING

As part of Hambledon's 18 month drill programme, the first eight holes of the most recent underground drilling of over 1700m were announced on 30 March 2011 resulting in significant high grade gold mineralisation with average in-situ grades between 5-6 g/t of gold and 6-7 g/t of silver. The results were better than expected with an expansion of resources from ore body number eight by over 20%. These drill holes support and validate the current JORC resource. There is a substantial amount of drilling still to do and the results will be announced in due course.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The construction of Tailings Impoundment No. 3 is well advanced with completion scheduled for Q3. The design for Impoundment No. 4 which will cater for the new 'paste' waste deposition is complete and construction will commence later in Q3. The revised integrated waste scheme with paste deposition is being designed by Golders Pastec Europe.

GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants Ltd, London have completed their initial 3-week work plan, focusing on the development of the mineral processing plant and infrastructure as set out in the circular detailing the placing and open offer.

FUNDRAISING

In March, the Company raised a total of GBP8.6m net of expenses by way of a placing and open offer. These funds will enable Hambledon to carry out essential work which will result in operational cost savings to the Company. Some of this work has already commenced and is expected to be completed over the next 18 months. The fundraising was approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company held on 30 March 2011.

For further information please contact:

HAMBLEDON MINING: Telephone [phone]Charles Zorab

FAIRFAX I.S. PLC (NOMAD AND JOINT BROKER): Telephone [phone]Ewan Leggat/Katy Birkin

AMBRIAN PARTNERS LTD (JOINT BROKER): Telephone [phone]Mark Wellesley-Wood/Samantha Harrison/Jen Boorer

TAVISTOCK COMMUNICATIONS: Telephone [phone]Ed Portman/Jos Simson