Anooraq Resources Corporation

Anooraq Resources Corporation (“Anooraq” or the “Company”) (TSXV: ARQ; NYSE Amex: ANO; JSE: ARQ) announces the completion of its concentrator plant upgrade project at the Company's Bokoni Platinum Mines (“Bokoni”), located 330 km from Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

The project included an upgrade on the main stream pumps to accommodate additional production throughput, the introduction of cyclone clusters for more efficient classification and an upgrade to the Merensky concentrator primary mill from an autogenous grinding mill to a semi-autogenous grinding mill to assist with grind of run of mine ore.

 

The total capital spent on the concentrator plant upgrade was ZAR 118 million (CAD$ 16.5 million) and the project was completed in time and within budget estimates.

 

The plant upgrade increases Bokoni's milling capacity to 165,000 tonnes per month (“tpm”), of which 120,000 tpm of production is anticipated to come from the Merensky Reef and 45,000 tpm from the UG2 Reef. This upgrade ensures the Bokoni concentrator plant is ready to accommodate the Company's planned first phase production expansion plan to 160,000 tpm by 2014.

 

Philip Kotze, CEO of Anooraq, said “We remain focused on turning the Bokoni mine into a profitable and sustainable operation. Increased production throughput going forward is a key ingredient for our success at the mine, both on the production and costs sides of the equation. This is one of the key projects we identified on the critical path when we first assumed operational control at Bokoni and we are pleased that the concentrator plant now has sufficient capacity to mill all of our first phase growth production plan feed building up to 2014.”