Pine Valley Mining Corp. has commenced commissioning of its Willow Creek coal preparation plant on Monday October 10, 2005.

The coal preparation plant will provide the Willow Creek Coal Mine with the capability of producing coking coal in addition to the low volatile pulverized coal injection (PCI) coal it currently produces. The coal preparation plant will also provide greater flexibility in producing a range of Coking and PCI coal products by targeting ash levels that differentiate its coal from competitors in the market.

The company expects to commence mining its coking coal seams in late October and anticipates shipping trial cargoes of this coal to prospective long-term customers over the next few months.

Pine Valley is completing the installation of coal mining, crushing, preparation and handling facilities that will support an annual mine production capacity of 2.2 million tonnes of product coal or greater. The coal preparation plant has an output capacity above that level, and is designed such that additional increases can be achieved if appropriate. The company expects the coal preparation plant to be operating at its design coal feed rate of 450 tonnes per hour by the end of October.

In order to achieve the new target production levels, the company has filed a permit amendment application with the British Columbia provincial government regulators in March 2005 requesting an increase from 0.9 million tonnes per year (the currently permitted production level) to 2.2 million tonnes per year. The amendment application details an accelerated production rate using the current Willow Creek Coal Mine reserves and the mine and plant infrastructure without any increase in the area (known as the mine footprint) utilized in the mining process. While it is not certain that the mine permit amendment will be granted, the company does not currently anticipate that its application will be rejected.