Century Mining draws on $7.9-million facility

Vancouver – Aspiring gold producer Century Mining (CMM-V) has drawn further on its financing facility to fund continued development of its recently acquired Sigma mine, located near Val d’Or, Quebec.

The company has now sold a total of $7.9-million in convertible debentures to merchant bank Endeavour Mining Capital (EDV-T).

Century Mining recently issued $1.065-million of the debentures convertible into common shares at 44 per share. Last Fall, the company issued $6.8-million in principal amount of the debentures to the merchant bank, convertible at 51 per share. Endeavour has also been issued 2.4-million warrants exercisable into shares at 44 apiece.

The funds are ear-marked for continued working capital needs during the pre-production phase of the Sigma mine re-start.

The latest tranche of the financing comes on the heels of a recently closed $2-million private placement financing of 5.7-million units (share plus warrant) at 35 apiece.

Century acquired the past producing Sigma gold mine in mid-2004 for $25.9 million. The acquisition included the Sigma and Lamaque deposits, the 5,000-tonne-per-day CIP (carbon-in-pulp) plant and associated infrastructure.

Operations at Sigma have been progressing through the "dry-run" stage with the fleet of mining equipment now almost completely delivered. Clearing of broken waste from the pit is continuing with ore being stockpiled at the crusher. Mill start-up is scheduled for mid-March.

Projected gold production for 2005 is 90,000 ounces with a cash cost of under US$290 an ounce.

A closely-spaced reverse circulation (RC) drill program is ongoing in the open pit and is aimed at confirming the deposit model, plus upgrading a significant amount of resource into reserves. A new ore reserve estimate is underway.