Clifton Mining Company has been informed by its partner, Desert Hawk Gold Corp., that production has now begun at the Kiewit project. The first royalty payments are anticipated to be received before the end of the year. It is common that heap leach operations start slowly as bugs are worked out and operations are optimized.

Also, ore does not yield its gold immediately, but only over time. Even after ore has been leached for a year, continued leaching will recover additional gold. So it may be misleading to extrapolate results of the first few months to the life of the mine operation.

As more ore is leached and as the process is fine-tuned, it is expected that the rate of production will increase. This represents a substantial achievement by Desert Hawk and a significant step forward for Clifton Mining Company.