Jun 5 2007
Belvedere Resources Ltd is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary, Finn Nickel Ltd (Suomen Nikkeli Oy), has received all mining approvals and started blasting waste rock in the new open pit over the Sdrkiniemi West Orebody at the Sdrkiniemi Nickel Mine, eastern Finland. First ore shipments are scheduled for late June at a rate of six to ten thousand tonnes/month for a period of 10 months. Ore will be transported to the concentrate facilities at the Hitura Nickel Mine, located in Nivala town. The nickel copper concentrate will be delivered to Norilsk Nickel Finland Oy's smelting and refining facilities at Harjavalta, Western Finland.
Infill definition drilling will be started over the Sdrkiniemi East mineralisation in July, to upgrade the resource status in preparation for a desktop mining study. This drill program is part of a much larger summer drilling campaign covering several Finn Nickel projects in the Kotalahti region, including further delineation drilling on the Valkeisenranta nickel project.
Belvedere's CEO David Pym comments, "The commissioning of Sdrkiniemi represents the successful implementation of the first phase of the Finn Nickel business plan and is a tribute to the commitment and experience of the Finn Nickel team. A further two mines are planned for commissioning in the Kotalahti region over the next three years, capitalising on Finn Nickel's strong internal growth profile."
In addition, Belvedere Resources Ltd is pleased to welcome Mr Vesa-Jussi Penttild to the Board of Directors. Mr. Penttild brings a wealth of mining experience to the board. He was General Manager of the Hitura Nickel Mine between 1988 and 2000 and was Vice President - Exploration, Precious Metals Mining, with Outokumpu Mining Oy between 2000 and 2004. Since 2004 V-J Penttild has been Chairman and CEO of Finn Nickel Ltd.