Oxide Plant Begins Pouring Gold/ Silver

JANUARY 23, 2003,  

To mark the successful first phase of plant commissioning, TVI Pacific Inc. has poured its first gold/ silver dore at its Canatuan oxide plant in the Philippines and shipped it to the Heraeus refinery in Hong Kong.

 Throughput at Canatuan is presently 50 tonnes per day. Further commissioning is will result in expanding plant capacity to 80 - 100 tpd. This should be completed very shortly. Plant feed is stockpiled small-scale miner (SSM) tailings that have thus far yielded higher than expected grades of both gold and silver. It is planned to increase production rate in stages from 80 - 100 tpd to approximately 250 tpd after 8 to 12 months and then to 500 tpd at a later date, resulting in an overall oxide mine life of approximately 6 to 10 years.  

In addition to the production of gold and silver dore, the plant has been successful in extracting environmentally harmful mercury that was contained in the SSM tailings feed. This environmental clean -up is an important aspect of the processing of these SSM tailings.

Rapu Rapu Project Update

 JANUARY 23, 2003,

The Rapu Rapu project, located in the province of Albay, Philippines, is a polymetallic mining project which a group of companies including, the operator, Lafayette Mining Limited is developing.  

 Lafayette has signed a Heads of Agreement ("HOA") with L G International Corp of Korea and KORES, the Korean Government resources investment arm. The HOA proposes that LG and KORES will jointly provide US$10 million in equity and debt financing to acquire a 26.04% equity interest in the project  

The Rapu Rapu project will produce gold dore, copper gold concentrate and zinc concentrate. Initial annual metal production figures are forecast to be, approximately, 10,000 tonnes of copper, 50,000 ounces of gold, 590,000 ounces of silver and 14,000 tonnes of zinc.    

This advance, coupled with the project financing mandate recently given to Standard Bank and Macquarie Bank, represents a major advance towards construction commencement. The credit approval by the banks will allow a rapid deployment of engineering contractors to commence the construction of roads, camp and wharf facilities.

Attack fails to Halt Plant Commissioning

 JANUARY 10, 2003,  

On December 27, 2002, a company TVI truck transporting 31 members of the local indigenous Subanen community to a local market was ambushed and fired upon by an armed group approximately 8 kms from the Canatuan project in Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. Thirteen people, including eight women and children, were killed, and twelve others were wounding.

 Despite the attack and having taken certain precautions, TVI is continuing the process of commissioning its plant at Canatuan. There has been a certain amount of delay in the delivery of materials, supplies, and services to the plant, while security was being reviewed with consequential disruption of operations. However the situation is now back to normal and, with the help of our committed workforce, processing of tailings material is underway, with a gold/ silver dore pour expected very shortly. TVI is committed and determined to proceed with the development of the Canatuan mining operation, and to continue its monetary and management assistance to the co-operative development program of the indigenous people of the area.

TVI is providing medical and financial aid to the affected families.

TVI Pacific Inc., Clifford M. James, President and CEO, T:(403) 265-4356, (403) 264-7028  (FAX), E-mail: tvi-info@tvipacific.com, Website: http://www.tvipacific.com