₪ David Pescod's Late Edition May 16, 2007
AN INTERVIEW WITH JIM MILLER-TAIT, VICE PRESIDENT, EXPLORATION
SELKIRK METALS
(As of May 10, 2007)
With zinc and lead prices not being too far away from record highs and with Selkirk Metals Corp. having one of the biggest exploration/development budgets in Canada for the coming summer and year, Selkirk Metals looks like it’s going to be a story to follow. We are with Jim Miller-Tait, Vice President in charge of exploration for Selkirk.
Dave: I guess Jim, the first thing that comes to mind is the old saying that “Mines are Made”…They are not found. This story has 30 years of history.
Jim: That’s right. This property has been known since Falconbridge discovered it in 1963 and then they found Kidd Creek and they went to build that mine. Cominco optioned the property in the 1970’s and then they discovered the Polaris Deposit and they went to build that mine. So this really fell by the wayside from all the majors and then the opportunity came for us to come in and explore it.
Dave: You are obviously using the old buy cheap routine… when the NDP were in, you grabbed this property dirtcheap. Those poor majors!! What are they going to think?
Jim: They can always come back for a lot more money!
Dave: If you could go over the history of exploration for the last two or three years…
Jim: In 2004 we came in and did about 5000 meters of drilling, exploring the known zones up to where there is a fault. In 2005, we came back and gambled with the deep holes(800 to 900 meters) to hit the deep target and intersecting19% zinc/lead over 14 meters. So that was the real story ofdiscovering the deep offset block.
In 2006, we came back in and completed a major drill program of around 15,000 meters, traced the zone for about1200 meters in length, 400 metres in width and thicknessesranging from five to 20 metres.
We also discovered the new Creek Zone 1,000 meters west of our closest drilling which is identical to the EZone and intersected it in all 10 drill holes.
Dave: So the question now, you have almost 1000 meters of strike and the thought is that you might have 5000 meters.
Jim: We traced the zone on surface using the historical drilling and mapping for a total length of 5 ½ kilometers. We will be exploring the relatively untested remaining 4 ½ kilometers with two drills this summer.
Dave: Now at this point, what kind of resource do you think you can have?
Jim: Historically they estimated between three and four million tons in the upper zone. That’s where we drilled off the shallow E-Zone. But now we have basically two and a half times that. Because of tight regulations on ore resource estimates, you can only include so far from each drill hole so we are going underground this year to complete a detailed drilling pattern.
Dave: Now this is pretty good rock. It’s worth a fair chunk of bills given current commodity prices.
Jim: Yes. It’s very high grade. We’ve done metallurgical work as well and it is very positive. Even the Dense Media Separation worked extremely well. There are insignificant if any “nasties” in the concentrates so it will be a very high grade and valuable concentrate.
Dave: When you mention nasty, for the average person, that’s mercury, selenium, cadmium etc. What’s wrong with that stuff?
Jim: The company gets penalized when it gets to the smelters. So the smelters will penalize you for whatever nasty element you have in the concentrate.
Dave: When you bring up the topic of smelters, this is very interesting because right now Teck Cominco has their huge smelter at Trail, they need feed, don’t they?
Jim: Exactly. It’s a land locked smelter that’s just down the highway or railway which is only 30 kilometers away from the property. Once it’s on rail it can go anywhere in the world very cheaply.
Dave: You are saying this is rich ore, but how rich? How much is it worth these days?
Jim: Using a conservative price of US$1.50/lb zinc and $0.75/lb lead and a grade of 10% zinc and 2% lead, which is common on the Ruddock Creek Property, the value per tonne in US dollars is about $360.00 per tonne.
Dave: Now you’ve mentioned that there has already been lots of interest in the property…
Jim: Oh yes. All the majors have been in to look at it and are all fully aware of what we are doing.
Dave: Now what do you see for zinc/lead prices down the road?
Jim: Zinc is always the lagging one of the base metals and is starting to catch up with the other metals that have already reached their higher levels.
Dave: There are not too many new zinc mines around the world at all, is there?
Jim: There’s not any new real big ones.
Dave: Can you see zinc prices at this level for the next 10 years or what would be your prediction?
Jim: A more conservative price of US $1-1.50 is more realistic which is still excellent for this project.
Dave: The question we usually end with, if you had to pick a stock other than your own or one that you don’t have any conflicts of interest with, what would it be? And we need a double, of course!
Jim: How about Imperial Metals with the strong metal prices, production and the new acquisition of BC Metals.
Dave: Thanks Jim!
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