TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – May 6, 2013) – Belo Sun Mining Corp. (TSX:BSX) has completed a positive Pre-feasibility Study (“PFS”) for its 100% owned Volta Grande Project (the “Project” or “Volta Grande”) located in Para state in central Brazil. The PFS was compiled by AMEC Americas Limited for Belo Sun with inputs from a number of other specialised consultants under management of Belo Sun and is based on development of the mineral resource estimate released inDecember 2012, excluding inferred resources (see news release dated December 18, 2012).

The following table summarizes the after tax results of the PFS:

Project Performance

Project Overview

Infrastructure

The Project is located in Para State in central Brazil approximately 60 kilometres south- east of the city of Altamira. The climate at Volta Grande is tropical, with a rainy season from January to April and a dry season extending from May to December. The mean temperature is nearly the same (25°C to 30°C) throughout the year. The relative humidity ranges from about 65% to 85%. Access to site will be via an existing 60 kilometer upgraded gravel road. Power for the Project will originate from Belo Monte’sPimental distribution station requiring the construction of a 20 kilometers 230 kV high tension power line. Water sufficient to meet mining needs is readily available at the Project site.

In addition to the mine and process facilities, a camp will be established at the Project site to house workers on a shift rotation basis. Provision has been made for the storage of critical supplies on site.

Open Pit Mineral Reserves

The mineral reserves resulting from the PFS are based on the December 2012 updated mineral resource (see press release dated December 18, 2012). Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. An external mining dilution factor of 16% at zero grade was applied to give a diluted run of mine grade of 1.48 g/t gold and a cutoff grade of 0.35 g/t Au. Recoveries are based on metallurgical testing that indicates a 94% gold recovery. The pit design was based on an optimised pit shell using a US$ 910/oz gold price.

Mining

The mine design, mineral reserve estimate, mining costs and mining fleet requirements for the Project were prepared by NCL Brasil LTDA. Conventional open pit mining will utilise owner operated truck and shovel combinations to maximise production. The mine is designed as a two pit operation using three phases per pit mined over ten years (including ramp up and ramp down), plus a year of pre-stripping. The mine has a planned throughput of 7.0 million tonnes of ore per year.

The average waste to ore strip ratio for the life of the mine is estimated to be 6.88:1. Bench heights of 10 meters will be mined using 15mߦ+ shovels loading 180 tonne haul trucks. Waste rock will be hauled to dedicated waste management facilities adjacent to the open pits. Saprolite ore will be stockpiled and up to 5% will be fed to the plant annually.

Metallurgy

Previous metallurgical test work included gold recovery tests using medium and high grade composites, with varying gold head grades from approximately 1 g/t to 4 g/t from each of the Grota Seca and Ouro Verde ore bodies.

The following tests made up the gold recovery section of the metallurgical test work program:

• Chemical characterization, size distribution and diffractive x-ray analysis of the head samples.
• Preg-robbing tests.
• Gravity separation tests using centrifugal concentrators.
• Leaching tests under a variety of conditions including grind size, slurry density, cyanide concentration and dissolved oxygen concentration.

The highlights of the gold recovery tests included:

• Between 25% to 50% of gold can be recovered in a gravity concentration step prior to leaching.
• The optimal leaching conditions for the Ouro Verde and Grota Seca composites were a grind size of 80% passing 75 um, slurry density of 50% by weight, 0.5 g/L NaCN concentration, 10 ppm dissolved oxygen concentration at a pH of 10.5.
• The Ouro Verde ore, with a gold head grade varying between 1.17 g/t to 3.80 g/t, has an average gold recovery of 94%.
• The Grota Seca ore, with a gold head grade varying between 1.06 g/t to 3.90 g/t, has an average gold recovery of 94%.

Metallurgical testwork has defined the most effective gold recovery process for Volta Grande as follows:

• Primary crushing with a gyratory crusher,
• Grinding using a SAG/Ball Mill combination,
• Gravity recovery,
• Leaching in a carbon in leach circuit,
• Cyanide destruct prior to discharge to the tailings management facility,
• Carbon elution and regeneration,
• Electro-winning and smelting to produce a gold dore.

Overall gold recovery using this process has been estimated at 94%. The plant will be operated continuously with a planned throughput of 7.0 million tonnes per year assuming an overall 90% availability. Annual gold production is projected to average approximately 313,100 ounces. Doreproduced at the site will be sold for further refining.

Operating Costs

Life of mine operating cost based on an annual production of 7.0 million tonnes of ore are estimated atUS$17.36 per tonne of ore mined or US$2.26 per tonne of material mined, excluding production royalties. This estimated cost equates to US$681.90 per ounce of gold produced, which includes: mining, process, general and administrative costs. The total operating costs are broken down as follows:

Operating Cost Breakdown

Capital Cost

Capital cost for the mine infrastructure, process plant and open pit development has been developed to provide an estimate suitable for the Construction Phase including cost to design, construct and commission the facilities. Mining costs include pre-stripping of the open pit in preparation for production.

Volta Grande Capital Cost Estimate

Financial Analysis

Belo Sun has completed a financial analysis of the Project using a discounted cashflow model incorporating the mine production schedule, estimated capital and operating costs, Brazilian tax treatment and royalty schedules as they apply to the Project. The financial analysis has been based on a gold price of US$1,450/ounce. No allowance has been made for inflation or escalation of gold prices.

Volta Grande Project Financial Analysis Summary

Financial Gold Price Sensitivity Analysis:http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Financial_Gold_Price_Sensitivity_Analysis.jpg

Schedule

The Company submitted its environmental assessment as part of the Project permitting process inMarch 2012. Engineering studies are ongoing with the objective of finalising the Volta Grande Feasibility Study in Q4 2013 and assuming positive results from the Feasibility Study, targeting a construction decision by year end with production anticipated to commence in early 2016.

Mark Eaton, President and CEO stated “We are pleased with the results of the PFS, but the Belo Sunteam will continue working on opportunities to optimise the Project further as part of the Feasibility Study (“DFS”), these include:

• The potential to include the higher grade South Block resource following updating of the resource classification based on the current drill program, this will allow feeding higher grade ore earlier in the mine life, 
  
  
  
  
• Inclusion of recent drilling at Ouro Verde and Grota Seca to update the resource estimate and potentially add further mineral reserves and extend the mine life. Specifically the recently mineral resource estimate update has already increased the measured and indicated resources to 87,981 k/t with 4.7 MOz at an average grade of 1.68 g/t (see news release dated April 15, 2013) and a further modest increase is expected with an additional update scheduled to be completed by Q3 2013 and included on the DFS. Complete resource modelling at a lower cut off grade to estimate the grade of mineralization adjacent to the mining blocks to accurately assign grades to potential mining dilution which is presently assigned a zero grade value,
  
  

• Further optimization of the mine plan in regards to pit sequencing and waste management facilities, 
  
  
  
  
• Further optimization of the process plant design.”