Liberty Well some good news for CRO on the NSR side.Liberty Mines plans Timmins start-up in Q1 20122011-10-04 07:46 ET - News ReleaseMr. Chris Stewart reportsLIBERTY MINES ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RESTART PRODUCTION AT ITS TIMMINS OPERATIONS IN Q1/2012Liberty Mines Inc. has finalized a plan to restart production at its Timmins facility in first quarter 2012. The plan, which will include reparations and upgrades to its existing tailings pond facility (TPF), the milling of stockpiled ore inventory, and the restart of underground operations, was developed after completing a thorough review of all aspects of the company's operations including personnel, equipment, policies and procedures. In addition, environmental work has started for permitting a new TPF that will provide more than 15 years of tailings storage capacity."Our single focus over the past six months has been to restart production and we are extremely pleased with the progress we have made," said Chris Stewart, president and chief executive officer of Liberty Mines. "Since February, we have been working closely with various regulatory bodies to take the proper corrective measures and have hired qualified engineering consultants to support our efforts. Today's plan provides us a clear road map to realize our short- and long-term objectives."To support the restart of its operations, Liberty will repair its existing TPF after having obtained and analyzed the results from all of the fieldwork and laboratory work over the past six months. As disclosed previously, Liberty suspended operations at its Timmins facility due to maintenance and tailings-pond-related issues in February, 2011.Liberty will also be performing a dam raise to the current TPF in order to provide an additional three years of capacity for mill tailings at an operating rate of 1,500 tonnes per day upon receiving the necessary regulatory approvals.Liberty will deploy a portion of the company's $20.0-million credit facility to implement its plan. This facility was established earlier this year with Liberty's controlling shareholder, Jilin Jien, one of the largest producers of nickel sulphate in the world, with annual output of 25,000 tonnes."The planned repairs to our TPF and the dam raise will support our operations through to 2015," Mr. Stewart also said. "To support our longer term objectives and ensure that our full potential is maximized, we envision the construction of a new, much larger TPF with a capacity of approximately 15 years."Concurrent with the repair work for its existing TPF, Liberty is starting an environmental baseline study for the new tailings pond facility which will be located on its current mill site. This new facility will be targeted for regulatory approval in third quarter 2013 with construction to start immediately thereafter. The company expects that this approach will allow its mines and mill to continue operating uninterrupted.Liberty currently has 25,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled on surface at the mill site and another 170,000 tonnes of ore broken in the stope underground at the McWatters mine. This ore inventory will provide the necessary flexibility Liberty needs to restart the mining and milling operations in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Liberty currently has 40 people working at its operations in Timmins with the majority of the key roles for restarting the operations already filled. Over the next couple of months Liberty will be aggressively hiring the remaining personnel required so that proper training can be delivered to everyone prior to commencing the commissioning process for the operations.Mr. Stewart also said: "Liberty is a much different, more focused company today. We are confident that our plan provides a clear road map that will allow us achieve a number of milestones in the short and longer term."