Dragon granted environmental permit for Finland gold project

Dragon Mining Ltd wholly owned subsidiary, Polar Mining Oly, was granted an Environmental Permit by the Supreme Court of Finland for mining operations at the Jokisivu Gold Project in southern Finland.

The Western Finland Environmental Permitting Authority originally granted environmental permission in 2004 but this decision was appealed by local residents to the Vaasa Administrative Court and subsequently to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has now dismissed all appeals and granted the permission in accordance with the original documentation.

The terms and conditions of the permit are standard for mining operations in Finland, including permission to mine in total 550,000 tonnes of gold ore and waste rock annually, with open cut mining able to operate for 15 hours a day and underground mining performed for 24 hours a day.

Full announcement pasted below:

The Supreme Court of Finland has granted an Environmental Permit to Polar Mining Oy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dragon Mining Limited for mining operations at the Jokisivu Gold Project in southern Finland.
The Western Finland Environmental Permitting Authority originally granted environmental permission in 2004 but this decision was appealed by local residents to the Vaasa Administrative Court and subsequently to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has now dismissed all appeals and granted the permission in accordance with the original documentation. No further appeals can be made.

The terms and conditions of the permit are standard for mining operations in Finland, including permission to mine in total 550,000 tonnes of gold ore and waste rock annually, with open cut mining able to operate for 15 hours a day and underground mining performed for 24 hours a day.

The Jokisivu Gold Project is located 42 kilometres southwest of the Vammala Production Centre and hosts Indicated and Inferred Resources of 1,473,000 tonnes at an average grade of 6.8 g/t gold for a total of 322,700 ounces from two gold deposits - Arpola and Kujankallio.

An internal feasibility study was completed in 2005 and the Company has commenced a review of this study, initially focusing on the mine planning and scheduling aspects of the proposed two open pits.

The Jokisivu gold project has the potential to become Dragon Mining's third operating mine, with adequate capacity available at the Vammala Production Centre to process the ore.

Development at Jokisivu could begin in 2008, initially mining the open pits, followed by an underground operation with a decline accessing both the Arpola and Kujankallio deposits.

Drilling to increase the resource inventory and upgrade resource categories, the defining of reserves for the first 2 to 3 years of operations and the finalization of underground mine planning and scheduling will precede any underground development.

Lateral and vertical extensions of all mineralized zones at both Kujankallio and Arpola remain open.

The program planned for 2008 includes drilling of the strike extension of the Arpola deposit, where previous high grade intercepts warrant follow up activities.