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Company News Releases...
December 5, 2003
FULL FEASIBILITY STUDY TO START IN JANUARY 2004
Pacific Booker Minerals Inc. have retained Beacon Hill Consultants to prepare a
scope of work and cost estimate to complete a full feasibility study on the
Morrison/Hearne Hill porphyry copper/gold project, 65km northeast of Smithers,
BC. Beacon Hill expects to deliver this overall plan by January 15, 2004. They
estimate that the feasibility study will take 15-18 months to complete.
As reported in the news release dated May 5, 2003, preliminary stages of
environmental and geotechnical programmes have been in progress during the past
six months as data for these activities are collected over extended periods, or
are co-ordinated with on-going drilling programmes. More specifically, the
environmental studies are co-ordinated by Rick Killam, Pacific Booker’s Manager
of Environmental Programmes. The following projects are continuing:
-
In collaboration with Jessica Chaplin of McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd.
of Smithers, PBM field staff have installed strategic surface water monitoring
stations to measure seasonal water flow and collect water quality samples. These
samples are being analyzed by ALS Chemex.
-
Installation of subsurface water monitoring instruments for hydrogeological
studies is being supervised by Rod Smith of Water Management Consultants.
-
Research on fish and aquatic life habitat is being supervised by Dave Bustard
of David Bustard & Associates Ltd. of Smithers, BC. The studies are focused in
areas that will be impacted by mine development at Morrison and Hearne Hill.
-
Acid generation studies are being supervised by Kevin Morin of Minesite
Drainage Assessment Group.
Geotechnical studies are being co-ordinated by Sean Daly P.Geo. Pacific Booker’s
Manager of Geotechnical Programmes. The studies to date have been focused on
investigating rock strength and hardness for work index measurements and
distribution of fracture density and orientation for pit wall design parameters.
Knight Piesold Ltd. have identified several options for tailing and waste rock
impoundment locations on the Morrison and Hearne Hill mineral claims. Their
study has confirmed that there is insufficient storage area on the comparatively
small Morrison claim block to accommodate the tailings and waste rock volumes.
Proposed alternative sites for tailing and waste rock disposal are located on
the larger Hearne Hill claims. Based on these preliminary requirements for a
general layout plan, PBM has decided that the property will in future be named
the Morrison/Hearne Hill.
Pacific Booker has for the past five years focused their exploration and
evaluation programmes on the Morrison Project. Within the scope of these
evaluations, there are strategic and synergistic priorities to include the
Hearne Hill deposit resources in the overall scheme of developing the
Morrison/Hearne Hill Property. The Hearne Hill Property was extensively explored
during the period from 1993 to 1997, and the programmes successfully defined two
high grade copper-gold breccia pipes within a larger porphyry system. The two
near-vertical oval-shaped pipes referred to as the Chapman and Peter Bland
Zones, are roughly 60 and 120m in size, respectively, and are spatially about
200m apart. The well-mineralized breccia pipes have an associated 10m- to
25m-wide peripheral aureole of mineralization that favourably expands the size
of the mineralized zone. Preliminary block model and geostatistical resource
estimate for the two pipes were completed in 1997, prior to establishment of NI
43-101. The resource at a 0.40% Cu cut-off grade was estimated as 2,816,000
tonnes grading 0.73% Cu and 0.22 g/t Au for indicated resource, and 248,000
tonnes grading 0.58% Cu and 0.24 g/t Au for inferred resource. More recently,
the parameters for geological block modeling of the two breccia pipes are being
re-evaluated from the perspective of potentially mining the two zones by a
combination of open pit and underground mining. The feasibility of developing
the higher grade breccia zones in the early stages of the Morrison/Hearne Hill
operation could provide higher mill head grades to maximize the rate of capital
cost payback.
The larger Peter Bland breccia pipe extends to a depth of over 300m. This was
confirmed by the 304m long vertical diamond drill hole 95-16 that returned:
Average for complete hole (304.19m): 0.75% copper, 3.15g/t silver and 0.32g/t
gold;
Includes surface to 60.96m (60.96m) 1.35% copper, 0.54g/t gold,
Includes 101.50m – 131.98m (30.48m) 1.93% copper, 0.82g/t gold
The final 3.05m interval for the hole ending at 304.19m, returned 0.73 copper,
2.50g/t silver and 0.23g/t gold.
The comparatively long intervals of persistent and well-mineralized zones
down-the-hole provide the incentive to re-evaluate the Hearne Hill breccia zones
with the objective of determining if these zones can be developed as an
early-stage satellitic source of ore to the larger Morrison open pit operation.
The Morrison/Hearne Hill Project is, at this stage, conceptually visualized for
development as a 20,000 tonne per day open pit operation. It is anticipated that
the currently known resources at the Morrison and Hearne Hill properties would
support a ten-year mine life. The prospective mine could possibly be designed to
closely resemble the past-producing Granisle and Bell Copper open pit mines in
the Babine Porphyry Copper Belt. These open pit mines operated with conventional
floation milling process to produce copper concentrate for shipment to smelters.
Preliminary results of an earlier scoping study on the Morrison Project
indicated the possible opportunity to optimize the resource by developing an
initial starter pit. This resource for the optimized pit is higher grade than
the overall Morrison resource, and the pit is favourably positioned where
surficial overburden is comparatively thin and open pit strip ratio is low. The
following tables present the resource estimates for the optimized and ultimate
pit designs.
| |
Optimized Starter Pit |
| |
Polygonal Resource Estimate
(E. Kimura P. Geo. - PBM |
Geostatistical
Resource Estimate
Snowden |
| |
0.3% Cu Cutoff |
0.3% Cu Cutoff |
| |
Tonnes |
%Cu |
G/t Au |
Tonnes |
%Cu |
G/t Au |
| Measured |
8,100,000 |
0.53 |
0.27 |
|
|
|
| Indicated |
4,300,000 |
0.54 |
0.24 |
|
|
|
| Meas+Ind |
12,400,000 |
0.53 |
0.26 |
18,337,000 |
0.48 |
0.24 |
| Inferred |
2,800,000 |
0.65 |
0.22 |
1,397,000 |
0.46 |
0.19 |
| Strip Ratio |
0.75:1 |
0.32:1 |
| |
Optimized Starter Pit |
| |
Polygonal Resource Estimate
(E. Kimura P. Geo. - PBM |
Geostatistical Resource
Estimate
Snowden |
| |
0.3% Cu Cutoff |
0.3% Cu Cutoff |
| |
Tonnes |
%Cu |
G/t Au |
Tonnes |
%Cu |
G/t Au |
| Measured |
43,700,000 |
0.46 |
0.22 |
|
|
|
| Indicated |
18,400,000 |
0.46 |
0.22 |
|
|
|
| Meas+Ind |
62,100,000 |
0.46 |
0.22 |
74,132,000 |
0.42 |
0.20 |
| Inferred |
28,900,000 |
0.52 |
0.21 |
5,170,000 |
0.44 |
0.20 |
| Strip Ratio |
1.15:1 |
0.54:1 |
The recent improvement in copper price and the significant
escalation in the gold price have provided the incentives and opportunity to
evaluate the feasibility for developing the Morrison/Hearne Hill Project. There
are several logistical and infrastructural up-sides that could favourably impact
the feasibility study.
- Both the Morrison and Hearne Hill deposits have been essentially
delineated and the Morrison resource evaluation has been completed
substantially in compliance with NI 43-101.
- Higher grade starter pit with favourable strip ratio and the probable
opportunity to mine higher grade ore from the Hearne Hill breccia pipe zones
would enhance the mill heads in the early stages of mine operation.
- Infrastructural development in the Babine Lake area includes established
centres and communities such as the Village of Granisle, highway and
well-maintained access road to the property, and power source within 22 km of
the property.
- A local work force, many with practical experience on mining-related
occupations can be recruited. The work force will include First Nations
persons who reside in the nearby Babine Lake communities.
Pacific Booker has been investigating other copper occurrences on the large
property holdings with the objective of determining if new resources can be
defined to sustain the life of the potential mine operation. The Bab and Jake
zones, 8 km south-southeast and 9 km southeast of the Morrison deposit,
respectively, are two porphyry style targets that PBM plans to drill in 2004.
Chris J. Sampson, P.Eng.
President
Pacific Booker Minerals Inc.
“No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained
in this news release. This release includes certain statement that may be deemed
“forward-looking statements”. All statements in this release, other than
statement of historical facts, that address future production, reserve
potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or
developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although
the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking
statements are based on reasonable assumptions, statements are not guarantees of
future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from
the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market
prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of
capital and financing, general economic, market or business conditions.
Investors are cautious that any such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from
those projected in the forward-looking statements.”
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