News Release

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Summary

 

Highlights

  • Approximately $18,000,000 in financings since March 1995

  • Bateman Engineering Inc. in 1999 recommended proceeding to full feasibility for the Getty North oxide deposit

  • Located in the major copper mining area of British Columbia

  • Listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, and registered with United States Securities and Exchange Commission (20-F)

  • Getty North potentially open-pittable porphyry copper deposit,

    Getty North Copper Deposit potentially amenable to production by Heap or Vat Leaching followed by either SX-EW, crystallization or cementation to produce refined copper.

  • Continuous Vat Leaching gave oxide copper recoveries of 75% - 85% in 36 hours.

  • Large property - approximately 200 sq. km (80 sq. miles) of geologically favourable Guichon Creek Batholith.

  • Mineral tenure - Crown granted and surveyed claims at Getty North and Getty South Deposits.

  • Located adjacent to the Highland Valley Copper Mine, one of the world’s largest copper mining and milling operations.

  • Adjacent to excellent support infrastructure:

• Stable, experienced local workforce

• Power

• Water

• Railhead

• Paved roads

  • Computerized 3-D geological and grade block modeling completed for Getty North Deposit.

  • Preliminary metallurgical studies by Dr. Morris Beattie, P. Eng. and Innovat Limited indicate that the Getty North Deposit can possibly be brought to production if it is economic,  but there is no guarantee that resources will be converted to reserves or that they will ever be economically recoverable by:

    - Leaching - the oxidized mineralization.
    or
    - Conventional concentration and smelting of sulphide mineralization.

  • SGS Lakefield research metallurgical studies and continuous vat leaching pilot plant test

  • Environmental baseline studies by Gartner Lee & Associates.

  • Diamond drilling total to date: 167 holes aggregating 43,352 m (142,238 ft) – 21,155 rock/core samples assayed.

  • Geophysical surveying: 296-line km (184 miles) of Induced Polarization (I.P.) and 227-line km (142 miles) of magnetometer surveys.

  • Geochemical surveys: 8,761 samples collected along 296-line km (184 miles) Detailed geological mapping: 20 sq. km (8 sq. miles)

  • Satellite Remote Sensing Survey:
    - Conventional Synthetic Aperture Radar (S.A.R.)
    - Conventional Thematic Mapping (T.M.).

  • Aerial photography and base map production (Northway Map Technology Ltd. and Watts, Griffis and McOuat).

  • Distribution of Highland Valley Mineral Deposits related to large, northerly, through-going fault systems. Valley and Lornex Deposits lie along the Lornex fault.

  • North Valley I.P. and magnetometer anomalies are 12 kms north of the Alwin Deposit along an inferred extension of the Alwin fault system.

  • Getty North and Getty South Deposits, and Getty West Zone are located within a mineralized structural belt extending north from Highland Valley Copper's J.A. Deposit and Bethlehem Mine.