GOLD AND PRECIOUS METALS — Trillion prepares to expand Zimbabwean mine

A prefeasibility study has recommended a 10-year development program for the producing Ndarama gold mine in central Zimbabwe.

Property owner Trillion Resources (TLG-T) says the program, which would be carried out in two phases, is based on an updated reserve estimate of 5.8 million tonnes grading 2.8 grams gold per tonne and a resource estimate of 7.2 million tonnes grading 3.8 grams gold.

The first phase, already under way and due for completion in October, is expected to double gold production to 30,000 oz. per year. Cash operating costs are projected to be US$210 per oz. Capital costs are US$4.5 million, with payback estimated at two years.

The key components of the first phase of development include: * doubling underground production to 200 tonnes per day from the Ndarama-Futi vein system;

* upgrading the Ndarama mill; and

* increasing daily production at the Ford open pit to 850 from 700 tonnes and installing a large jaw crusher and conveyor system to increase capacity at the Broomstock mill.

The second phase, designed to boost annual gold output to more than 80,000 oz., will take two years to complete. Capital costs are forecast to be US$26.5 million, with a payback period of less than three years (at a US$300-per-oz. gold price). The major elements of this phase are: * construction of a conventional 1,500-tonne-per-day

crushing-grinding-leaching plant to process ore from the Ford pit; and * conversion of the Broomstock mill to a 1,000-tonne-per-day refractory sulphide plant, to be achieved by installing a flotation circuit and an 80-tonne-per-day bio-leach plant to treat the refractory concentrate.

Ore from Ndarama, the Futi and Taba-Mali reefs and the Broomstock deposit will feed the renovated Broomstock plant.

After the second phase is completed, operating costs for the entire Ndarama operation are expected to drop to less than US$200 per oz. gold.

The 10-year development program is expected to recover about 800,000 oz.

gold from four main areas: the Ford open pit (4.6 million tonnes grading 2 grams); Ndarama-Futi (4.6 million tonnes at 7.3 grams); Broomstock (980,000 tonnes at 4.1 grams); and Tabla-Mali (510,000 tonnes at 6.1 grams).

Based on known reserves and resources, as well as the property’s exploration potential, management is confident that mining can be extended beyond the year 2007.

The Ndarama property hosts a variety of ore types in close juxtaposition: a disseminated, pyritic ore in a sericitized felsic intrusive body, characterized by laterally extensive zones of low-grade mineralization; narrow stibnite-arsenopyrite and variable iron sulphide-rich quartz veins in shallow-dipping reverse faults; and a sulphidized, banded or brecciated chert-magnetite iron formation.