UNITED KENO HILL MINES LIMITED
TORONTO, Aug. 13 /CNW/ - Stephen F. Powell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of United Keno Hill Mines Limited announced today that James M. Stephen, Douglas O. Goss, and Alan R. Archer have resigned as directors of the Corporation.
Bradley G. Thiele P.Eng of Whitehorse, Yukon and Edward A. Yurkowski P.Eng of Vancouver, British Columbia have been appointed directors of the Corporation to fill two of the vacancies. In addition, Mr. Thiele has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation.
Mr. Thiele is a mining engineer with over 30 years of mining experience, many of which involved narrow-vein mining in northern Canada. He has held senior operating and executive positions with a number of public mining companies during which time he has acquired considerable experience with the mechanized mining methods and shot-crete based ground control methods proposed for the Elsa Properties. Recently, as an independent mining consultant, Mr. Thiele assisted the Corporation in the preparation of the pre-feasibility and
feasibility studies of the recommencement of commercial production at the Elsa Properties, and in the calculation of mineable reserves for the properties.
Mr. Yurkowski is President of Procon Mining and Tunnelling Ltd.of Burnaby, British Columbia and has more than 30 years of experience in civil and mining engineering in Canada. Procon is a Canadian mining contracting company with considerable experience in narrow-vein mining. As a result of its experience at Homestake Canada's Eskay Creek operations where it developed and now provides contract mining services to the mine, Procon has gained expertise with the mining and ground support methods proposed for the Elsa Properties.
Recently, the Corporation accepted a proposal from Procon to provide contract rehabilitation, pre-production and mining services at the Elsa Properties.
The addition of these highly experienced individuals to the board and of Mr. Thiele to management represent a long-planned strengthening of the United Keno operating team. The Corporation and Procon are now preparing rehabilitation, pre-production development and mining services contracts for the milling facilities and mines in and around Elsa, central Yukon. Production of silver from the Elsa Properties, halted in January, 1989 is planned to recommence following a five month pre-production period at a rate of approximately 500 tons per day.
The Corporation can now capitalize on the fixed-price construction and mechanical completion contract and the target-price mining contract offered by Procon and on the addition of Mr. Thiele's technical qualifications to the operating team in its efforts to secure the pre-production financing and working capital necessary to complete the pre-production work and return the Elsa Properties to profitable commercial production.
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