VANCOUVER, British Columbia, October 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Year-to-date production of 63.1 million pounds of copper in concentrates

Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced its operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 for its two operating mines, Cozamin and Minto. Combined production totalled 22.6 and 63.1 million pounds of copper in concentrates in the third quarter and first nine months, respectively, with additional by-products of lead, zinc, silver and gold.

    Q3 2012 Production
                              Q1 2012   Q2 2012   Q3 2012   YTD 2012
    Copper in concentrates
    (millions of pounds) 
    Cozamin                      13.0      12.1      11.0       36.1
    Minto                         5.6       9.8      11.6       27.0
    Total                        18.6      21.9      22.6       63.1
 

"Both mines continued to operate according to plan in the third quarter," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "Operations are currently stable, so our expectation is that we will meet our 2012 production guidance of 80 million pounds of copper in concentrates."

Operational highlights for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012

• Production of 22.6 and 63.1 million pounds of copper contained in concentrates, respectively.
• By-product production of 4.1 and 12.9 million pounds of zinc, 0.5 and 2.4 million pounds of lead and 431,760 and 1,344,291 ounces of silver in concentrates, respectively. Final gold production is not available since assaying is conducted off-site, but is estimated at 6,513 and 11,815 ounces for the respective periods.
• At Cozamin, recoveries remained consistent; however tonnage and copper grade were down due to the planned transitioning to the outer lower grade edges of stopes. Grades in the fourth quarter are expected to average 1.7%.
• At Minto, throughput averaged 3,874 tonnes per day, with grades and recoveries above second quarter levels. Grade is expected to decrease in the fourth quarter to 1.4%. This is lower than originally expected as a result of an unplanned pushback that is necessary to improve the stability of the west pit highwall which will impact the fourth-quarter mine plan. The pushback is within the ultimate pit design, so the overall strip ratio is not expected to change for the Area 2 Pit.
• On September 24, 2012, the Yukon Water Board issued a draft amendment to Minto's Water Use License which allows for tailings deposition in the mined out Main Pit. This draft is now with the Minister awaiting signature. Final approval is expected during October, resulting in cost savings of approximately C$5.00 per tonne of ore milled.

Q3 Operating Details

 
                                                Cozamin               Minto
                                          Q3 2012   YTD 2012    Q3 2012  YTD 2012
    Production [(1)]
    (contained in concentrates)
              - Copper (000s pounds)       11,010     36,134     11,554    26,956
              - Lead (000s pounds)            550      2,368          -         -
              - Zinc (000s pounds)          4,139     12,876          -         -
              - Silver (ounces)           369,562  1,203,356     62,196   140,935
              - Gold (ounces)                   -          -      6,513    11,815
    Mine
              - Tonnes of ore mined       283,833    884,824    332,134   709,192
    Mill
              - Tonnes processed          285,999    887,487    356,414 1,029,259
              - Tonnes processed per day    3,109      3,239      3,874     3,756
              - Copper grade (%)             1.88       1.99        1.6      1.32
              - Lead grade (%)               0.17       0.21          -         -
              - Zinc grade (%)               1.01       1.01          -         -
              - Silver grade (g/t)           56.7       59.2        6.2       5.1
              - Gold grade (g/t)                -          -       0.64      0.52
    Recoveries
              - Copper (%)                   92.9         93       92.1      90.3
              - Lead (%)                     52.2       58.1          -         -
              - Zinc (%)                     65.2       65.2          -         -
              - Silver (%)                   70.9       71.3       87.5      84.1
              - Gold (%)                        -          -       70.9      68.6
    Concentrates [ (1)]
              - Copper concentrate (dmt)   19,072     62,326     13,706    32,862
                            Copper (%)       26.2       26.3       38.2      37.2
                            Silver (g/t)      550        536        141       133
                            Gold (g/t)          -          -       14.8      11.2
              - Lead concentrate (dmt)        434      1,800          -         -
                            Lead (%)         57.4       59.7          -         -
                            Silver (g/t)    2,327      2,239          -         -
              - Zinc concentrate (dmt)      3,925     11,939          -         -
                            Zinc (%)         47.8       48.9          -         -

(1) Adjustments based on final settlements will be made in future periods.

Outlook

Capstone's 2012 guidance for 80 million pounds (± 5%) of copper in concentrates remains unchanged. With production at the nine month mark of the year at 63.1 million pounds and operations at both mines running well, we remain on target to meet guidance for the year.

Q3 Financial Results Timing

Capstone will report 2012 third-quarter financial results on Wednesday November 7, 2012 after market close, followed by a conference call and webcast for investors and analysts on Thursday November 8, 2012 at 11:30 am Eastern Time (8:30 am Pacific Time).

Conference Call and Webcast Details

    Date:       Thursday November 8, 2012
    Time:       11:30 am Eastern Time -- 8:30 am Pacific Time
    Dial in:    North America: +1-888-231-8191, International: +1-647-427-7450
    Webcast:    http://www.newswire.ca/en/webcast/detail/1047205/1137953
    Replay:     North America: +1-855-859-2056, International: +1-416-849-0833
    Replay
    Passcode:   38430666

The conference call replay will be available until November 22, 2012. The conference call audio and transcript will be available on Capstone's website within approximately 24 hours of the call at http://capstonemining.com/s/Conference_Calls.asp.

About Capstone Mining Corp.

Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company with two producing copper mines, the Cozamin copper-silver-zinc-lead mine located in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects, the large scale 70% owned Santo Domingo copper-iron-gold project in Chile in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc-gold-silver project in British Columbia, as well as exploration at properties in Australia, Canada, Chile and Mexico. Using its cash flow and strong balance sheet as a springboard, Capstone aims to grow organically through continued mineral resource and reserve expansions and through acquisitions in politically stable, mining-friendly regions. Additional information is available at http://www.capstonemining.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone Mining Corp. (the "Company") does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation.

Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "scheduled", "guidance", "plan", "planned", "estimated", "projections", "projected" and "expected". By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to actual results of current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral resources; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; accidents, dependence on key personnel, labour pool constraints, labour disputes; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements.

National Instrument 43-101 Compliance

Unless otherwise indicated, Capstone has prepared the technical information in this news release ("Technical Information") based on information contained in the technical reports, news releases and MD&As (collectively the "Disclosure Documents") available under Capstone Mining Corp.'s company profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Each Disclosure Document was prepared by or under the supervision of a qualified person (a "Qualified Person") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101").  Readers are encouraged to review the full text of the Disclosure Documents which qualifies the Technical Information.  Readers are advised that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Disclosure Documents are each intended to be read as a whole, and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context. The Technical Information is subject to the assumptions and qualifications contained in the Disclosure Documents.

The disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by John Sagman, P. Eng., Capstone's Vice President, Technical Services a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. In addition, Gregg Bush, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Capstone reviewed all technical information in this news release.

For further information:

Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor Relations and Communications
+1-604-637-8157
cburnett@capstonemining.com

(CS.)

SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp.