To: id who wrote (7259 ) 5/23/2002 9:50:29 PM From: clutterer Respond to Echo Bay Mines Ltd. (ECO) mines, processes and explores for gold in North America. In 2000, ECO had three operating mines in the U.S.: Round Mountain in Nevada; McCoy/Cove in Nevada; and Kettle River in Washington. In addition to gold, ECO produces silver at its McCoy/Cove mine. In April 2000, ECO reopened the Lupin mine, located in the Nunavit Territory of Canada. The Lupin mine had been placed on care and maintenance in early 1998. After a reengineering study identified savings that helped lower costs, ECO recommenced operations and gold production. All of ECO's mines are 100% owned except for Round Mountain, which is 50% owned. ECO operates the Round Mountain mine, which was acquired in 1985. As of July 1, 2000, Homestake Mining Co. increased its interest in the Round Mountain mine from 25% to 50% by acquiring Case Pomeroy's 25% interest. Mining and other equipment, crushing facilities, heap leaching facilities, milling facilities, gold extraction and recovery facilities, administration and maintenance buildings, are included in the joint venture. The McCoy mine and surrounding property, which was purchased by ECO in September 1986, is located in Lander County, NV. Open pit mining of the Cove deposit began in early 1988 and was completed in October 2000. Mining in the McCoy open pit was completed in April 2000. Mining is still being conducted at the Cove South Deep underground. The Kettle River properties are located in Ferry County in Washington and cover approximately 7,535 acres through patented and unpatented mining claims and fee lands. ECO's exploration efforts focus principally on projects in North America where ECO already has an extensive gold mining infrastructure. In 2000, ECO produced a total of 694,663 ounces of gold and 12,328,297 ounces of silver at an average cash operating cost of $193 per ounce. In 2001, ECO expects to produce 570,000 ounces of gold and five million ounces of silver at an average cash operating cost of $225 per ounce of gold. At Dec. 31, 2000, ECO had 4.5 million ounces of gold reserves and 10.9 million ounces of silver reserves. Total gold production for the first quarter of 2001 was 173,470 ounces, 24% higher than 2000 first quarter production. Silver production from McCoy/Cove was down 58% from the corresponding period in 2000. On Sept. 5, 2001, the Franco-Nevada Mining Corp. Ltd. announced that it would convert bond holdings into a 49.5% equity stake in ECO, which would make it the largest shareholder of the company.
