The process plant at the Aranzazu Project consists of a three-stage crushing circuit feeding three ball mills with current capacity of approximately 1,800 tonnes per day, with a sulphide floatation circuit to produce a copper-gold concentrate. Aura Minerals has begun mill upgrades to enable restart of the plant in the second quarter of 2010 at 2,600 tonnes per day. Upgrades include additional grinding capacity and a concentrate filter.  Current floatation capacity is sufficient for the upgrade.  

Recoveries on restart of the operations are based on Aura Minerals’ operating experience with the Aranzazu Project from June to December 2008 and are projected to be approximately 88% for copper, approximately 70% for gold, and 50% for silver. Additional metallurgical testwork is underway to evaluate potential optimization of copper recovery and copper concentrate grade.