Capstone Reports Operations at Minto Mine to be Temporarily Suspended for Back Burn

Capstone Reports Operations at Minto Mine to be Temporarily Suspended for Back Burn

07 June 2010

published by www.prnewswire.com


Canada — Capstone Mining Corp. (CS: TSX) today announced that the wildfire previously reported as burning in the area of its Minto Mine has continued to spread. Since the first report, the fire progressed along the west bank of the Yukon River but was, until recently, maintaining its distance from the Minto Mine. However, over the past two days, the fire has turned westward and is now just over 6km from the mine. Due to the weather conditions and the abundance of dry, fallen timber from previous forest fires, Yukon Wildland Fire Management (“YWFM”) believes that it is unlikely the fire can be extinguished and will continue to spread. As a result, YWFM plans to commence a back burn around the Minto Mine site, pre-burning available fuel for the fire under controlled conditions to prevent the wildfire reaching the mine property. In order to ensure the health and safety of its employees and contractors, both from fire and smoke during the back burn period, the mine workforce will be reduced to a maintenance crew only, and mining and milling operations will be temporarily suspended for a period estimated to be five to seven days.

“Yukon’s Wildland Fire Management personnel have been using helicopters and ground personnel to slow the spread of the wildfire, however they have advised that a controlled back burn is the best option to ensure the health and safety of our employees, and the protection of our infrastructure and facilities from wildfires now and in the future,” said Stephen Quin, President of Capstone Mining. “We will, of course, follow the expert’s advice.”

A core group of Minto Mine personnel and contract equipment operators will remain on site to assist with building fire breaks and ensuring the protection of facilities and infrastructure. There is a significant volume of water stored on site from the recent spring run-off, as well as equipment and trained personnel to ensure the protection of mine infrastructure and facilities. Since the commencement of the fire, additional fire breaks have been prepared, sprinklers set up, and water conveyance systems reconfigured to support water distribution around the site, as recommended by Yukon Wildland Fire Management.

Capstone will post updates on the situation at the Minto Mine on its website at www.capstonemining.com on a regular basis, but will provide a news release once the timing for a resumption of operations is confirmed.

About Capstone

Capstone owns and operates two high grade copper mines and has an advanced high grade copper-zinc development project, all located in favourable mining jurisdictions in North America. The Cozamin Mine is a high grade, relatively shallow, mechanized underground copper mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, with significant by-product credits of zinc, lead and silver. The Minto Mine is a high grade open pit copper-gold mine, and is located in the Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone owns the high grade Kutcho Copper Project in British Columbia, Canada, which is being advanced towards a production decision, and could produce significant by-products of zinc, silver and gold. Capstone aims to grow both organically through its existing projects, and through mergers and acquisitions. Capstone’s growth ambitions are backed up by a successful track record of growth through both avenues, and supported by a strong balance sheet and significant equity investments.

The TSX does not accept any responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This document contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, “forward-looking statements”). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone Mining Corp. (the “Company”) does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management’s expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the anticipated period of suspended operations for its Minto Mine, Capstone’s future plans for the Minto Mine, the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “perhaps”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “occur” or “be achieved” or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this news release, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words (or variations of words) such as “resulting”, “further” “planning”, “planned”, “could”, “will”, “proposed”, “would”, “scenario”, “may”, “intends”, “opportunities”, “potential”, and relate to the Company’s expectations with respect to the operation of the Minto Mine. By their very nature 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 can include, among others, risks related to actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral resources; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company’s interim and annual financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Specific risks identified in this news release are risks related to the timing and receipt of permit amendments required to implement the mine expansion; exchange rates, metal prices and external influences; and grade control in mining the Phase IV pits. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that: (1) the length of time operations are suspended at the Minto Mine will be five to seven days; (2) the back burn will be successful and not damage mine infrastructure or facilities; (3) the back burn will protect the mine in the future and (4) there will be no future fire related incidents. Other assumptions are discussed throughout this news release. 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 not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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.


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