Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Wheaton River Minerals (WRM Toronto) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Markham who wrote (133)	3/4/1998 7:50:00 PM
From: Dave M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 350

News Release, this is my second try to post this, hope it dosn't show up twice: Wednesday March 4, 8:58 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. Bellavista Yields Excellent Heap Leach Recoveries TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 1998--Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. (TSE:WRM. - news) is pleased to announce that metallurgical testing of composite samples from its Bellavista gold project in Costa Rica indicates excellent recoveries using conventional heap leach processing methods. After 120 days under leach, the ore is estimated to yield in excess of 72 percent overall recovery. Two column tests achieved gold recovery of 62.4 percent for the lower grade sample and 81.7 percent for the higher grade sample, which was ground to a finer size, simulating a grind agglomeration circuit of high and low grade ore from the open pit. McClelland Laboratories of Sparks, Nevada supervised the tests at its facility in Honduras. Further confirmation of assays was carried out at Chemex Labs in Vancouver. The substantial improvement in recoveries over that of previous owners was largely due to the introduction of a grind agglomeration technique, a common heap leach practice in which high grade ore is ground to a finer particle size and then mixed with crushed lower grade ore. Cement is then added to the ore, so that chemical solutions used to dissolve the gold will uniformly contact all portions of the heap. While previous owners concentrated on a milling scenario, they did not utilize grind agglomeration in their heap leach testing procedures. Wheaton River plans to incorporate the findings into a prefeasibility study on the project, which is currently underway. Bellavista is 100 percent owned by Wheaton River and is one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Central America. Drilling has outlined an open pit mineable reserve of 8.0 million tonnes grading 1.80 grams gold per tonne and a separate underground resource hosting 3.6 million tonnes grading 3.28 grams gold per tonne. Together, the deposits contain about 840,000 ounces of gold. The prefeasibility study is expected by late April and a bankable feasibility study should be completed by year-end. The Bellavista gold deposit is located in an active mining belt where several open pit heap leach operations have been permitted, the most recent being in 1997. Wheaton River also operates the Golden Bear heap leach mine in British Columbia through its 87 percent owned subsidiary, North American Metals Corp. Contact: Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., Toronto Ian J. McDonald or Paul MacDonald, 416/860-0919 More Quotes and News: Wheaton River Minerals Ltd (Toronto:WRM.TO - news; Toronto:WRM.TO - news) Related News Categories: mining/metals