Detour Gold Reports an Unplanned Mill Shutdown

Detour Gold today reported that it has shutdown its mill as of December 17, 2013 as a result of an unexpected problems at the mill with the pre-leach thickener system.

Initially Detour Gold believed that a restart of the system could be addressed with the removal of dense slurry within the thickener, however, further inspection by Detour Gold over the weekend found structural damage to the torque cage.

Detour Gold expects repairs to the torque cage will start tomorrow December 24. Management estimates that the processing plant will restart prior to the end of 2013.

It is expected that the processing plant will resume operation at approximately 50,000 tonnes per day (tpd). With all five crushers and SAG mills having been relined in a planned shutdown in the first half of December 2013, no major planned down-time is expected in the first quarter of 2014.

Despite the unplanned mill shutdown, mining rates have continued to improve for Detour Gold. In December Detour Gold averages of 238,000 tpd to date (excluding the overburden removal contract which will cease today).

The mine has a higher grade inventory of blasted in-pit ore and stockpiled ore totaling approximately 847,000 tonnes grading 1.07 g/t (diluted).

Site management is taking the opportunity during this shutdown to do additional maintenance work. This includes the installation of the shuttle chute to the second secondary crusher following the successful testing of the first shuttle chute.

Assuming no processing plant operations during the last two weeks of December, the Company estimates the following results for 2013:

• Gold production of 81,000 ounces for Q4 2013 (231,000 ounces for 2013)
• Total cash costs for the post-commercial production period of approximately US$1,100 per ounce
• A cash balance of approximately US$80 million at December 31, 2013