Alacer Gold Announces Second Quarter Operating Results

Jul. 24, 2011 (Canada NewsWire Group) --

Lower Costs on Higher Production

TORONTO, July 25, 2011 /CNW/ - Alacer Gold Corp ("Alacer" or the "Corporation") [TSX: ASR and ASX: AQG] is pleased to announce its second quarter 2011 operating results from its four mines in Australia and Turkey.  All dollar amounts in this report are presented in U.S. Dollars unless stated otherwise. The complete second quarter financial statements and management discussion and analysis will be released on Monday, August 15, 2011 with a conference call to follow.  Conference call details can be found later in this release.

Quarterly Highlights

• Alacer operations completed its first full quarter without a Lost-Time Injury.
• Produced 101,348 attributable ounces of gold, an 11% increase over the previous quarter.
• Group cash operating cost of $542 per gold ounce.
• Alacer mines generated $89 million in cash operating margin.
• Higginsville and Çöpler Gold Mine (on 100% basis) both produced over 40,000 ounces of gold.
• Cash and cash equivalents at end of June total $137.5M.
• Drilling at Çöpler and Trident (Higginsville) has identified important resource extensions and drilling at Shirl West near Kalgoorlie has discovered shallow high-grade mineralisation.

Safety and Environment
Alacer operations reported no Lost-Time Injuries ("LTI") during the second quarter of 2011. The group's LTI Frequency Rate¹ ("LTIFR") was 2.2 at the end of the second quarter. La Mancha Resources Inc., operator of the Frog's Leg underground mine (49% Alacer Gold), reported one LTI at the mine for the second quarter of 2011.

Five Medically-Treated Injuries ("MTIs") were reported for the second quarter 2011, an improvement on the ten MTIs reported during the previous quarter. The group's MTI Frequency Rate¹ ("MTIFR") was 6.2 at the end of the second quarter. The La Mancha operated Frog's Leg mine reported two MTIs for the same period.

There were no reportable environmental incidents during the second quarter.

Operations
Çöpler Gold Mine (95%)

• 41,122 ounces gold produced on 100% basis, representing a 24% increase over the previous quarter.
• Cash operating cost of $381/ounce.
• Commercial production declared as of April 1, 2011.
• Successfully commissioned the crushing, agglomeration and material handling circuit in June.
• Open pit mine tonnes placed on the leach pad were 2.1 million tonnes at 1.25g/t gold.
• 49,938 recoverable ounces of gold were mined during the quarter and placed on the leach pad which represents a 26% increase over the previous quarter.
• Drilling identified significant new extensions to the Main Zone deposit at Çöpler (see News Release dated May 31, 2011).
• Significant progress has been made on the construction of the new Çöpler village.

Higginsville Gold Operations (100%)

• 40,919 ounces gold produced, representing a 13% increase over the previous quarter.
• Cash operating cost of $715/ounce (A$681/ounce).
• Trident underground ore hoist of 245,967 tonnes at 4.7g/t gold.
• Vine open pit commenced ore production during the second quarter.
• Dewatering of the Chalice open pit and underground workings more than 90% complete by end of June.
• Chalice underground mine development commenced and is on-track to provide first ore in late 2011.
• Drilling at the Trident mine continues to identify extensions to the Apollo orebody and a new high-grade zone down-plunge from the Artemis orebody which has been named Helios.

South Kalgoorlie Operations ("SKO") (100%)

• 7,377 ounces gold produced, representing a 9% increase over the previous quarter.
• Cash operating cost of $622/ounce (A$592/ounce).
• Mining of the HBJ Stage 2 cut-back on the eastern wall of the open pit was completed during the quarter. This enables access to the ore in the floor of the HBJ open pit for mining in the second half of 2011.
• Significant advancement of HBJ Stage 3 study (expansion of HBJ pit and new processing facility).
• Drilling at the Shirl West prospect near Kalgoorlie has discovered shallow high-grade gold mineralisation.

Frog's Leg Joint Venture (49%)

• 13,986 gold ounces produced, representing a 7% decrease compared to the previous quarter.
• Cash operating cost of $599/ounce (A$571/ounce)

Second Quarter Operating Results

¹ The gold ounces reported as produced are based on the ounces poured.  This reported production differs to the ounces mined due to the time period gold is in the processing circuit, the use of estimated recovery rates for ore yet to be processed, and assay adjustments.
² USD:AUD exchange rate of 1.05 used.

Edward Dowling, President and CEO of Alacer stated, "A terrific effort by each of our operations resulted in the company achieving the milestone of producing more than 100,000 ounces of gold in one quarter and comfortably exceeding our guidance of 90,000 - 95,000 ounces for the quarter. More importantly, this production milestone was achieved without a single lost-time injury.  The outlook is for the Company to continually improve the gold production and maintain our trend for the rest of 2011.  This will result in a sustainably increased gold production from our four current operations.

Second quarter consolidated cash operating costs of $542/ounce are 11% better than first quarter results of $612/ounce and 8% better than annual guidance of $590/ounce. Management is focused on operating cost leadership and a major company-wide cost and efficiency improvement effort has been launched during the quarter.

Our key development projects are progressing as planned. A decision is close on the merits of building a new, higher capacity SKO processing facility and expansion of the HBJ pit (termed HBJ Stage 3) that would add significantly to ore reserves and provide a strategic platform for ongoing growth associated with the company's large resource base in the region. The redevelopment of the Chalice underground mine is progressing as planned towards providing additional high-grade ore to the Higginsville processing facility from late 2011.

Drilling at Çöpler has extended mineralization in several places outside of the current resources, which is likely to further improve the current reserve base and improve the economics previously shown associated with the definitive feasibility study for the sulfide project that is now underway.  Additionally, drilling at Higginsville has identified a new high-grade zone, called Helios, and exploration near Shirl has discovered high-grade, near-surface mineralization. An exploration update for the Australian Business Unit is underway."

Financial Results and Conference Call
Complete second quarter financial statements and management discussion and analysis will be released on Monday, August 15 and filed on our website at www.AlacerGold.com and on www.SEDAR.com.

Edward Dowling will host two conference calls on Monday, August 15 (North America) and Tuesday, August 16 (Australia).

The first call for the North American markets will take place on Monday, August 15 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time).  To participate in the conference call, please dial

The second call for Australian and Asian markets will take place on Monday, August 15 at 9:00 pm (Eastern Daylight Time) or Tuesday, August 16 at 11:00 am (Sydney - Eastern Standard Time). To participate in the second conference call, please dial

A recording of the call will be available on Alacer's website at www.AlacerGold.com or through replay until August 31, 2011 by calling:

About Alacer

Alacer is a leading intermediate gold company with operations in both Australia and Turkey.

Australia
Alacer has three operating gold mines in Australia, namely the Higginsville and South Kalgoorlie operations; and a 49% interest in the Frog's Leg underground mine. The South Kalgoorlie operations and the Frog's Leg interest were acquired following the successful takeover of Dioro Exploration NL, which was completed in March 2010. The Australian operations are targeting 272,000 ounces of gold in 2011.

Turkey
Alacer is recognized as a leader in exploration and development in Turkey and, with the start-up of Çöpler, will soon be among Turkey's leading gold producers. Çöpler is 95% owned by Alacer and 5% by Lidya Mining (formerly known as Çalık Mining, see Anatolia News Release, August 13, 2009). Initial plans at Çöpler are to produce approximately 1.4 million leachable ounces of gold at costs consistent with the lower end of industry standards. Average annual production is expected to be about 175,000 gold ounces. Additional production expansion from the sulfide gold reserve is expected to add 2.25 million ounces. A detailed feasibility study is underway. In addition, Alacer holds a significant pipeline of prospective gold and base metal projects.

Alacer Gold currently has 277.6 million common shares issued and outstanding, 297.2 million fully diluted.

Qualified Person Statement

The information in this report which relates to exploration results is based on information compiled by Chris Newman, a full-time employee of Alacer Gold Corp. and a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr. Newman has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" and qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administration. Mr. Newman consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.

Cautionary Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information, future oriented financial information, or financial outlooks (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to this news release and other matters identified in Alacer's public filings, Alacer's future outlook and anticipated events or results and, in some cases, can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "projects", "predict", "potential", "continue" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts and include, but are not limited in any manner to, those with respect to proposed exploration, communications with local stakeholders and community relations, status of negotiations of joint ventures, commodity prices, mineral resources, mineral reserves, realization of mineral reserves, existence or realization of mineral resource estimates, the timing and amount of future production, timing of studies and analysis, the timing of construction of proposed mine and process facilities, capital and operating expenditures, economic conditions, availability of sufficient financing, exploration plans and any and all other timing, exploration, development, operational, financial, economic, legal, social, regulatory and, political factors that may influence future events or conditions. Such forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions, including, but not limited in any manner, those disclosed in any other Alacer filings, and include exploration results and the ability to explore, the ultimate determination of mineral reserves, availability and final receipt of required approvals, titles, licenses and permits, sufficient working capital to develop and operate the mines, access to adequate services and supplies, commodity prices, ability to meet production targets, foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates, access to capital markets and associated cost of funds, availability of a qualified work force, ability to negotiate, finalize and execute relevant agreements, lack of social opposition to the mines, lack of legal challenges with respect to the property or the Company and the ultimate ability to mine, process and sell mineral products on economically favorable terms. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to us, they may prove to be incorrect. Actual results may vary from such forward-looking information for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties disclosed in other Alacer filings at www.sedar.com and other unforeseen events or circumstances. Other than as required by law, Alacer does not intend, and undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking information to reflect, among other things, new information or future events.

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¹ Lost-Time Injuries Frequency Rate = number of Lost-Time Injuries per one million hours worked and the Medically-Treated Injuries Frequency Rate = number of Medically-Treated Injuries per one million hours worked

Edward Dowling, President and CEO, or Rohan Williams, CSO at +61 8 9226 0625 visit www.alacergold.com