To: Andrew who wrote (1119 ) 12/6/2003 4:19:29 PM From: Northern Marlin Respond to Thanks for posting the 3rd Q 03 press release, Andrew. I'd read it before I wrote to Landen at AEM.A number of initiatives have been undertaken to accelerate the drilling, blasting and extraction cycle. These include the addition of two production drills acquired with the Bousquet purchase, increasing drill hole diameter, the blasting of stopes in one mass blast rather than four separate blasts and using electronic detonators. The blasting results have been positive with good fragmentation, less vibration, minimal damage to the surrounding walls and higher productivity. The lower mine is currently entering a phase with a higher proportion of secondary stopes available to be mined. These secondary mining blocks are destressed and have historically been easier to extract. All of these factors are expected to result in increasing quantities of higher gold grade ore being extracted from the lower mine. Any displacement of gold/copper mining blocks at depth will result in a corresponding increase in production from silver/zinc mining blocks.
