Copper Mountain Mining Corporation – Initial Drilling Confirms and Extends Historic Resources
VANCOUVER, March 29 /PRNewswire/ — Copper Mountain Mining Corporation (“CMMC” or the “Company) announces that results have now been received for the first 10 drill-holes of a 21,000 m program that is currently underway at the historic Copper Mountain mine site, located 15 km south of Princeton, British Columbia. All holes intersected multiple zones of mineralization, with intersections ranging in thickness from 20 to 311 feet. Additionally, data has been recovered from an 11,800m, 65 drill-hole program undertaken by Similco Mines in 1996 and 1997 that has previously never been included in reported resources.
Highlights from the first 10 holes of the current program and from the 65 holes of the 1996-1997 program are listed in the table below. A complete list of drill results can be found on the company’s website.
————————————————————————- Drill-hole Location From (feet) To (feet) Thickness Cu% ———- ——– ———– ——— ——— — ————————————————————————- 96P5-04 Pit 3 West wall 9 278 269 0.63 ————————————————————————- 96P5-19 ” 465 694 229 0.67 ————————————————————————- 97P2-56 Pit 2 East End 100 306 206 0.47 ————————————————————————- SD07-06 Saddle Zone 550 632 82 0.51 ————————————————————————- P207-01 Pit 2 South Wall 16 80 64 0.81 ————————————————————————- “” 104 185 81 0.53 ————————————————————————- P207-02 Pit 2 South Wall 26 270 244 0.47 ————————————————————————-
The drill program, which was initiated in mid-January, is designed to confirm the tonnage and grade of the reported historical resources and discover and delineate additional mineralization. An area of immediate interest is between the #1, #2 and #3 open pits (http://www.cumtn.com/fileshare/files/35/070308_CuMtn_Drilling_Update.pdf) termed the Saddle zone. Definition of mineralization within the Saddle zone could allow for expansion of the #1, #2 and #3 pits into one major open pit and thus allow access to substantial mineralization at depth. Copper Mountain Mining Corp. is targeting the definition of ‘in-pit’ reserves of at least 200 million tonnes in order to provide approximately 20 years of mine life for an approximate 35,000 ton/day mining and milling operation.
1996-97 and 2007 Drill Programs:
Previous open-pit mining on Copper Mountain extracted ore from three pits, which occur in a triangular arrangement with distances of 120 to 310m between current pit edges. Mineralization is known to extend outwards from pit walls and remains open to considerable depth below the current pit floors. A considerable amount of mineralization is known to occur beyond the historical pit limits but estimated resources were limited by a lack of drill information in these areas.
The 2007 drill program is designed to expand and upgrade mineral resources within and around the historical pit areas. Initial drilling is focussed on the “Saddle” zone which is the area between Pits 2 and 3 (http://www.cumtn.com/fileshare/files/35/070308_CuMtn_Drilling_Update.pdf). Discovery and definition of mineralization within this zone would enhance the probability of achieving a “super-pit” design which would incorporate the three current open pits into a single large pit. All of the mineralization discovered by the new drill-holes is located between surface and the current pit bottoms. Of significance is drill-hole SD07-03 which was drilled in central area between pits 2 and 3 and intersected 5 zones of mineralization with and aggregate length of 486′ and a length weighted average grade of 0.40% copper.
Drilling in the Pit 2 area by both the 96-97 program and the first three drill-holes of the current program has achieved significant results indicating mineralization continues outwards from the current pit walls, particularly along the south wall towards Pit 3.
About Similco Mines Inc:
The Similco open pit porphyry copper mine operated from 1972 to 1996 when it was closed due to low metal prices. The typical milling rate was 22,000 tons per day with mill head grades in the 0.45% copper range. Gold and silver credits added about 12% value to the concentrate sales revenue. The project has excellent access and infrastructure and being located in southern B.C. facilitates year-round drilling.
Mining at Copper Mountain began in the 1930′s as a high-grade underground mine with open pit mining taking over in the early 1970′s. To date, the mine area has produced 1.74 billion pounds of copper, 9.1 million ounces of silver and 730 thousand ounces of gold. Historical resources remaining on the property were reported by the former owner, Princeton Mining Corporation, in their 1996 annual report and include 142 million tons of resources(x) containing 1,130,712 pounds of copper. The current drill program is designed to provide data for the confirmation and upgrading of historical resources to 43-101 standards and to expand the mineralized zones. In addition to those historical resources described above, significant mineralization has been delineated in the Alabama zone (historical resource(x) of 29 million tons grading 0.35% Cu and 0.23 g/t Au), located 300m to the north of Pit 2 and the Oriole zone (4.5 million tons grading 0.44% Cu) immediately south of Pit 3. There are a number of additional areas with known historical mineralization which have been targeted for further exploration.
(x) (previously estimated reserves should be considered as historical resources and are not compliant with NI43-101 classifications and although deemed relevant should not be relied upon) Quality Assurance
The company employs a system of quality control for drill results which includes the use of blanks, certified reference material (standards) and check assaying. Core is logged on site and split with a diamond saw. Samples are shipped to Pioneer Laboratories for geochemical analysis of copper with all values of greater than 1000 ppm copper being re-analysed by assay methods for copper, gold and silver. The drilling program is being carried out by Bruce Laird, P.Geo. and supervised by Peter Holbek, P.Geo., both qualified persons as defined by National Policy Instrument 43-101.
About Copper Mountain Mining Corporation
CMMC is a private BC resource company planning to go public in the second quarter of 2007. The Company owns 100% of Similco Mines Ltd which holds the mineral claims and crown grants over the 18,000 acre Similco Mine site. Additional information is available on the Company’s web page at http://www.cumtn.com/.
On behalf of the Board of COPPER MOUNTAIN MINING CORPORATION “Jim O’Rourke” Jim O’Rourke Chief Executive Officer
Note: This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents, filed by the Company on its web page, specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to review or confirm analysts’ expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements.
CONTACT: Rod Shier, CFO at (604) 689-0489 ext 222
Copper Mountain Mining Corporation
CONTACT: Rod Shier, CFO at (604) 689-0489 ext 222