Tuesday December 21, 11:16 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Wheaton River Successful in Red Mountain Bid
TORONTO, ONTARIO--Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. is pleased to announce
that its 89% owned subsidiary, North American Metals Corp., has reached
agreement with PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc., the interim receiver of Royal Oak Mines
Inc., to purchase the Red
Mountain gold project. The purchase price is C$413,360. Closing of the transaction is
expected to take place in
January 2000, and is subject to approvals by the bankruptcy court and regulatory
agencies.
Red Mountain is an advanced gold project located 18 kilometres east of Stewart,
British Columbia. The deposit was
originally drilled by Bond Gold in the late 1980s, and was subsequently explored by Lac
Minerals and Royal Oak.
Approximately US$38 million has been spent by past operators. Diamond drilling on the
property has totalled 127,000
metres and 2,000 metres of underground workings have been excavated, including a
1,000-metre production-sized
decline.
Mineralized material at Red Mountain as published in Royal Oak's 1998 annual report
totals 13,238,000 tons grading
0.074 ounces gold per ton, or 918,000 ounces of gold. A technical evaluation
completed by Wheaton River during its
due diligence period indicates that a higher-grade core of the deposit could be
economically extracted at a US$300
gold price, mining about 700,000 tonnes grading 12 grams gold per tonne, and
recovering about 250,000 ounces of
gold over a 4-5 year period. It is on this higher-grade, downsized basis, and the
project's exploration potential, that the
property is being purchased. A geostatistical evaluation carried out by Wheaton River
indicates that no further
drilling may be necessary for ore reserve estimation of the higher-grade core. The
company intends to undertake a
bankable feasibility study on the project, commencing immediately.
''This acquisition fits our long-term strategy of acquiring advanced gold projects that can
be brought to production
quickly and at a low cost,'' says Ian McDonald, Wheaton River's chairman and chief
executive officer. ''We already
have a proven operating team in northern British Columbia, and expect Red Mountain
to replace the production from
the nearby Golden Bear mine, hopefully by 2002.''
Wheaton River is examining the economics of moving the mill facility currently situated at
the Golden Bear mine to
the Red Mountain project. The purchase includes a considerable amount of mining
equipment and an
office/warehouse building in Stewart.
Contact:
Ian J. McDonald
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
or
Kerry Knoll
Vice-President, Investor Relations
(416) 860-0919
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