Abacus fully vested in Afton project (August 30, 2004)

Vancouver — Ahead of schedule, Abacus Mining & Exploration (AME-V) has fulfilled the terms to earn its acquisition of the Afton project from Teck Cominco (TEK-T). The 70-sq.-km copper-gold project is west of Kamloops, B.C.

The company’s accelerated earn-in matches the pace of its exploration programs at Afton since entering into the option agreement in early 2002.

The ground is adjacent to and southeast of DRC Resources‘ (drc-t) main Afton Mine project, which is being advanced toward underground copper-gold production.

Abacus’s land package covers the main structural corridor trending southeast from the Afton pit to the Ajax pit, 13 km away.

Abacus has spent more than $3 million on the project. This year alone, it has drilled in excess of 15,000 metres of core, and a second, 15,000-metre program is about to start.

The company has spent well in excess of the $1.5 million required to satisfy the terms of the option agreement. Once Abacus has spent more than $5 million or delivers a prefeasibility study, Teck Cominco has 120 days in which to exercise back-in rights for up to a 65% interest in the project.

Abacus’s upcoming drill program will focus on expanding the No. 2 and No. 22 zones on the Rainbow claims, while continuing to test the DM, Audra, Crescent and Coquihalla zones.

Previous drilling at Rainbow intersected significant intervals of copper-gold mineralization in numerous holes. Elevated values of molybdenum and palladium have also been encountered.

Buoyant copper and gold prices have led to a renewal of interest in bulk-tonnage, porphyry projects in British Columbia.

Abacus has 34 million shares outstanding and was recently trading in the range of 21-25.