Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. Announces Increase in Revenue and Reduction in Cash Cost for Its Fiscal 2013 - Seite 2

The aggregates business - in particular, the initial deliveries during the last quarter of fiscal 2013 in execution of the aggregates contract between PDI and FQM, worth up to $100 million - made it possible to compensate for the decrease in gold production and significantly contributed to a cash cost of $540, below the average of the previous three quarters of fiscal 2013. For Fiscal 2014, the Company expects its cash cost to be within a range of $550 to $600. Revenue from aggregates represent for the Company a material recovery of its mining costs at Molejon mine, helping not only to compensate for the decrease in gold prices during the last quarter of fiscal 2013 but also after year-end. For Fiscal 2014, the Company expects a volume of 1.8 million m3 for its aggregates business, representing revenue of approximately $40 million. The acquisition of Inmet Mining Corporation by FQM has opened a very material opportunity for the Company, through PDI, to develop an alternative cash-flow stream by selling aggregates and other mining services to FQM.

The transition from a business model with one source of revenue to one with multiple sources of revenues has challenged the production at Molejon mine during the second half of fiscal 2013. Despite a significant ramp-up of throughput to the Mill Plant since the commissioning of the fourth ball mill and the other auxiliary equipments associated with the expansion of the production capacity (an increase of 30% in processed ore has been achieved during the last quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to previous quarters), the recent requirement of sharing mining and crushing equipment between gold and aggregates production, resulted in a decrease in gold production during the last quarter of fiscal 2013. These events contributed to the Company having some overdue deliveries to Deutsche Bank during the second half of fiscal 2013, which have been settled in cash. Management and Deutsche Bank have been jointly working on this matter in order to take all the required remediation actions.

Total ounces of gold stockpiled for future heap leaching production as of the end of fiscal 2013 was at 143k oz. As part of the Company's plans to increase gold production at its Molejon gold mine, these stockpiles of ore will be processed through on/off leach pad methodology combined with a commercial heap leaching stage expected to be commissioned during calendar year 2014.