PDF file, Page B5

"SNIP MINE

On April 30 Cominco Ltd. sold its 60% interest in the Snip gold mine to Prime Resources Group Inc. for $55 million, giving that company 100% ownership of the operation. Homestake Canada Inc. is the mine operator. The main orebody at Snip is the Twin zone, a 0.5-15 m wide quartz-carbonate-sulphide vein in a shear zone within biotite hornfels greywacke 1000 m from the Red Bluff granodiorite porphyry. The shear is a normal fault with 28° oblique slip. The Twin zone owes its name to a post-ore biotite lamprophyre dike which lies in the plane of the ore vein and commonly segments the vein in two. The Twin vein extends 1000 m along strike and 500 m vertically with a steep northwest plunge. Since mining began in 1991 most of the Twin zone has been extracted and an increasing proportion of ore is derived from the ore zone fringe. Consequently, production from mechanized stopes has diminished and reliance on conventional cut and fill stopes has increased. This combined with a change in work schedule necessitated a 35% increase in work force in 1996 and a decrease in ore production from 460 to 430 tonnes per day. Recovery of the rich crown pillar began in 1995 and continued during favourable summer weather in 1996. Exploration for new ore zones intensified in 1995 and late in the year the 150 portal was collared to evaluate the newly discovered Twin West zone. If Twin West is correlative with the Twin zone it has been displaced about 300 m south (left) by the Monsoon Lake structure. Underground development (600 m) on Twin West was completed in 1996. Surface and underground drilling outlined 36,500 tonnes grading 19.9 g/t Au early in 1996. Step out drilling on a 20 m grid was largely disappointing until late in the year when drilling encountered what may prove to be a new oreshoot.

Snip produced about 3840 kgm (123,589 ounces) of gold in 1996 as gold dore and concentrate. The concentrate was treated at the Premier Gold CIL mill until gold recovery became unsatisfactory. In the third quarter Snip began to ship its concentrate along with Eskay ore to the DOWA smelter in Japan. Total production cost under new management in the second half of 1996 was U.S. $163 per ounce, including shipping and refining. Homestake has applied to Ministry of Forests for a Special Use Permit to build an extension of the Iskut road to Snip mine. This would reduce operating costs thereby extending mine life by enabling lower grade ore to be mined (the current cut- off grade is 12 g/t Au). Proven and probable reserves at the beginning of 1997 in the Twin zone, 150 and 130 footwall veins and new Twin West zone are 334,899 tonnes at 24.77 g/t Au, sufficient to mid 1999."

EMPR B.C. gov.

"The Iskut JV is situated immediately north of the former producing Snip Mine (1991-99, 1.03 million ounces at 25 grams per tonne gold). "

"The Gorge Zone, with similarities to the Snip deposit’s Twin Zone, is one of the most prominent occurrences, with chip samples from surface outcrops returning 3.66 ounces per ton Au over 3.3 feet and 4.86 ounces per ton Au over 3.3 feet."

Golden Band News Release

Best source for a local area map is Romios Gold presentation. Barrick concessions are in dark grey in the former Snip Mine area, and amounts to ~40sq. km

Romios Gold Presentation

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