Monument to build Selinsing gold mine

Vancouver Monument Mining (MMY-V) will go ahead with mine construction at its Selinsing gold project, about 100 km north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In view of government approval of Selinsing’s carbon-in-leach treatment plant, Monument’s board of directors approved a $17 million construction and development budget. The decision follows Monument’s in-house assessment of the project.

With a gold resource of 231,000 indicated oz. and 388,000 inferred oz., the review of the project forecasted production at 40,000 oz. a year, for four years, at a cost of US$341 per oz.

Monument says construction of a 1200 tonnes-per-day treatment facility will start immediately.Predevelopment mining should begin as early as the second quarter of 2009 in time to get feed to the run-of-mine pad and commission the plant in the third quarter of the same year. Monument plans on full production in the following quarter.

President and CEO Robert Baldock says much of the equipment at the mine will be locally sourced.

“What is not very well known is that Malaysia produces most if its own heavy equipment,” he says.

As a result not only are repair components easy to acquire in case they are needed, Baldock says, but, given the high level of technical expertise in Malaysia, equipment can be made “to spec”.

Although Baldock says Monument will not produce a scoping or feasibility for the project he emphasizes that Selinsing’s low capital, labour and exploration costs should translate into a payback period for the project of around one year.

Monument acquired Selinsing in mid-2007 from Wira Mas Trust of Malaysia for $3.5 million, about 31 million shares and 5 million warrants. These in turn give holders the right to purchase one additional share at 65 per share over two years.

On news of the production decision Monument’s share price stood still at 17.5.