SILVER-LEAD-ZINC MINING: Bellekeno mine reaches commercial production

YUKON - Vancouver-headquartered Alexco Resource Corp. declared its Bellekeno silver-lead-zinc project reached commercial production on Jan. 1, 2011. The underground mine and conventional flotation plant are located in the Keno Hill Silver District. Mill throughput is 250 t/d.

Commissioning activity at the Bellekeno began in late September and continued with the processing of low grade material at low throughput rates in late October, and finally scale-up to initial design capacity and processing of ore by mid November. During the commissioning and ramp-up period the mine produced approximately 15,700 tonnes of ore and the mill processed over 9,000 tonnes. Concentrate shipping began in early December.

Average production grade of ore extracted during this October through December period, including low grade material specifically mined for plant commissioning purposes, was 1,068 g/t Ag, 12.6% Pb and 6.6% Zn. Optimization and debottlenecking activities continue including further optimization of pumping and piping efficiency between the flotation circuit and the dewatering (filtration) circuit, and continued improvement of operating efficiencies in the dewatering circuit.

Visit Alexco's website, www.AlexcoResource.com, for details of the Bellekeno project and the latest corporate presentation.