El Salvador and San Nicolas results
Western Copper Holdings Limited
WTC
Shares issued 13,970,000
1998-10-09 close $3.5
Tuesday Oct 13 1998
Also Teck Corp (TEK.B)
Mr. Mike Halvorson reports
The following is an update on the El Salvador project in Zacatecas State, Mexico, a joint venture
between Teck Corporation - 55 per cent and Western - 45 per cent.
El Salvador Joint Venture
Teck and Western have been systematically investigating various targets on joint venture lands.
Approximately 5km northeast of San Nicolas, jasperoids, anomalous in silver, lead and barium, outcrop
discontinuously over a distance of about 1,000 metres. One vertical diamond drill hole has been
completed with the following assay intervals, which are thought to represent true thickness.
Inter-
Hole From To val Ag
m m m g/t
TAM-05 3.1 35.7 32.6 230.2
includes 3.1 19.0 15.9 331.3
includes 24.0 35.7 11.7 191.1
Further drilling is to start shortly to determine the extent of this high grade silver discovery, which has
the potential to considerably enhance the overall project economics by providing cash flow during
prestripping at San Nicolas.
San Nicolas Deposit
Preliminary geotechnical studies on the San Nicolas massive sulphide deposit suggest that rock
characteristics are favourable, and support an aggressive preliminary pit slope of greater than 50 degrees
which is steeper than the 41 degrees overall pit slope assumed in initial scoping studies. This has the
effect of reducing the life of mine waste to ore stripping ratio from 7.8:1 to less than 5:1, thereby
decreasing the amount of overburden and waste to be removed by more than 200 million tonnes.
Assay results from geotechnical holes three and four (SAL-90 and SAL-91), angle holes drilled to the
southwest in the south/central part of the deposit, are shown below.
Inter-
From To val Cu Zn Ag Au
m m m % % g/t g/t
SAL-90
185.0 190.4 5.4 0.30 2.99 35.2 0.75
233.9 398.8 164.9 0.84 1.55 25.0 0.45
includes
233.9 273.4 39.5 0.81 5.69 75.5 1.53
SAL-91
225.0 292.0 67.0 1.06 2.39 38.5 0.79
includes
225.0 248.0 23.0 0.50 6.34 87.8 1.90
Joint Venture Expenditures
Teck and Western plan to spend almost $1-million (U.S.) during the fourth quarter in the joint venture
area. Western Copper's share of these expenditures will be financed out of the credit facility available
from Teck. These expenditures will cover costs for metallurgical test work, geotechnical slope design,
groundwater evaluation, engineering, ground geophysics, diamond drilling and land acquisition.
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