KEY PERMIT SECURED FOR CERTEJ PROJECT

 

TIDMEGU 
 
RNS Number : 6053I 
European Goldfields Ltd 
16 March 2010 
 

 
 
 
For Immediate Release 
                                        16 March 2010 
 
                          European Goldfields Limited 
 
                      KEY PERMIT SECURED FOR CERTEJ PROJECT 
 
16 March 2010 - European Goldfields Limited (TSX / AIM: EGU) ("European 
Goldfields" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a significant step forward 
in the permitting of the Certej gold-silver project ("Certej") in Romania. 
 
The last remaining approval required for the grant of the Zonal Urbanisation 
Plan ("PUZ") relating to Certej has been issued by the Regional Department for 
Environmental Protection, Timisoara.  Formal public notice of this approval has 
been issued today in Romania and, at the next meeting of the Certej council 
which is expected within the next week, the full PUZ permit will be granted. 
 
The grant of the PUZ will be a milestone which takes European Goldfields one 
step closer to production.  Certej contains 2.4 million reserve ounces of gold, 
plus 17.3 million reserve ounces of silver, and lies in an area which was a 
major gold producer historically and retains considerable future potential.  The 
Company is already well advanced in the next and final substantive part of the 
permitting process for Certej, being the approval of the full Environmental 
Impact Study. 
 
The Company is grateful for the excellent and continued cooperation it has 
enjoyed with national, regional and local authorities and will continue to 
demonstrate its commitment to both the letter and principles of Romanian and 
European Union requirements. 
 
Commenting on this latest advance of Certej Martyn Konig, Executive Chairman and 
President of European Goldfields said:  "Our patience has been rewarded with a 
unique achievement in the development of a gold project in Romania.  This is a 
landmark event. We appreciate that the Romanian authorities have recognised both 
our competence and our productive collaboration throughout this process. This 
high standard of performance and delivery continues as we complete the final 
stage of the permitting process." 
 
Certej Project Summary 
 
The Certej project is an epithermal gold/silver deposit located in the "Golden 
Quadrilateral" area of the Apuseni Mountains of Transylvania in Western Romania, 
a highly prospective region which has historically produced upwards of 30 
million ounces of gold. The Certej deposit lies within a brownfield site with 
excellent existing infrastructure and a history of production which dates back 
300 years; the open pit and plant were worked as recently as 2006. The Certej 
orebody comprises four distinct ore zones, amenable to extraction by 2 adjacent 
open pits that are well defined by extensive drilling. 
 
The Certej deposit has a calculated NI 43-101 compliant mineable reserve of 32.8 
million tonnes of ore grading 2.0 g/t gold and 11.4 g/t silver, representing 2.1 
million ounces gold and 12.0 million ounces silver.  A further 4.1 million 
tonnes of ore from lower grade material and existing dumps will contribute an 
additional 290,000 ounces of gold and 8.8 million ounces of silver in the latter 
years of the mine. Reserves will be extracted using a conventional open pit 
method with a strip ratio of 3.1:1. The project will involve the processing of 3 
million tonnes of ore per annum over an open pit life of 11.5 years with an 
overall mine life of 16 years. The ore will be processed using flotation to 
produce a pyrite gold concentrate and then ultrafine grinding and ambient 
pressure oxidation using the Albion Process developed by Xstrata to produce gold 
and silver doré on site.Average annual production is expected to be 155,000 
ounces of gold and 820,000 ounces of silver during the life of the open pit 
after which the plant will be fed by lower-grade material, stockpile and dumps. 
The project will involve an anticipated project capex of approximately $190 
million which includes pre-stripping in year 1. 
 
The Technical Study, required to obtain the relevant construction permits, is 
currently underway with completion anticipated in Q2 2010, ready for submission 
on approval of the Environmental Impact Study.  The project upside includes 
numerous drill ready targets both near mine and within the wider licence area. 
Further long term exploration potential exists within the Certej-Brad Belt. 
 
About European Goldfields 
 
European Goldfields is a developer-producer with globally significant gold 
reserves located within the European Union. The Company generates cash flow from 
its 95% owned Stratoni operation, a high grade lead/zinc/silver mine in 
North-Eastern Greece and the sale of gold concentrates from Olympias. European 
Goldfields will evolve into a mid tier producer through responsible development 
of its project pipeline of gold and base metal deposits at Skouries and Olympias 
in Greece and Certej in Romania. The Company plans future growth through 
development of its highly prospective exploration portfolio in Greece, Romania 
and Turkey. 
 
For further information please see the Company's new website at 
www.egoldfields.com 
 
For further information please contact: 
 
European Goldfields: 
  Buchanan Communications: 
Martyn Konig, Executive Chairman 
Bobby Morse / Katharine Sutton 
e-mail: [e-mail] 
  e-mail: [e-mail] 
Tel: [phone] 
   Tel: [phone] 
 
RBC Capital Markets: 
Josh Critchley 
e-mail: [e-mail] 
 
Matthew Coakes 
 
e-mail: [e-mail] 
 
Tel: [phone] 
 
Resources & reserves parameters 
 
For additional information on the resource and reserve estimates quoted in this 
news release, please refer to the Company's Resources & Reserves Declaration at 
www.egoldfields.com/egoldfields/en/operationsprojects/state Patrick Forward, 
General Manager, Exploration of the Company, was the Qualified Person under 
Canadian National Instrument 43-101 responsible for reviewing the disclosure of 
resource and reserve estimates quoted in this news release. 
 
Forward-looking statements 
 
Certain statements and information contained in this document, including any 
information as to the Company's future financial or operating performance and 
other statements that express management's expectations or estimates of future 
performance, constitute forward-looking information under provisions of Canadian 
provincial securities laws. When used in this document, the words "anticipate", 
"expect", "will", "intend", "estimate", "forecast", "planned" and similar 
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements or information. 
Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the estimation of 
mineral reserves and resources, the timing and amount of estimated future 
production, costs and timing of development of new deposits, permitting time 
lines and expectations regarding metal recovery rates. Forward-looking 
statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions 
that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to 
significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. 
 
The Company cautions the reader that such forward-looking statements involve 
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the 
actual financial results, performance or achievements of the Company to be 
materially different from its estimated future results, performance or 
achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements and the 
forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. These 
risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to: changes 
in the price of gold, base metals or certain other commodities (such as fuel and 
electricity) and currencies; uncertainty of mineral reserves, resources, grades 
and recovery estimates; uncertainty of future production, capital expenditures 
and other costs; currency fluctuations; financing and additional capital 
requirements; the successful and timely permitting of the Company's Skouries, 
Olympias and Certej projects; legislative, political, social or economic 
developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company carries on business; 
operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development 
activities; the speculative nature of gold and base metals exploration and 
development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of 
reserves; the risks normally involved in the exploration, development and mining 
business; and risks associated with internal control over financial reporting. 
For a more detailed discussion of such risks and material factors or assumptions 
underlying these forward-looking statements, see the Company's Annual 
Information Form for the year ended 31 December 2008, filed on SEDAR at 
www.sedar.com. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, 
to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new 
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. 
 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
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