Bema drills Kupol (July 12, 2004)

Vancouver — Drilling by Bema Gold (BGO-T) on its Kupol project, in the Chukotka region of northeastern Russia, continues to return high gold and silver values.

Forty-nine holes (9,000 metres) have been completed so far, and results for 29 have been received. These show “bonanza” grades of gold-silver, confirming earlier results and continuity projections.

Mineralization has been expanded throughout the four zones that constitute Kupol, namely Big Bend, Central, North and South. At the North zone, in particular, drilling has extended the high-grade mineralization to depth.

Recent highlights from drilling are as follows:

— Hole 158 — An infill hole on the Big Bend zone cut 21.9 metres (from 133 metres), or a true width of 13 metres, grading 55.82 grams gold and 727.3 grams silver per tonne;

— Hole 172 — This hole, drilled below the Big Bend zone, returned 8.2 metres (from 165 metres), or 4.1 metres of true width, grading 11.76 grams gold and 196.72 grams silver, including 0.63 metre (true width) of 45 grams gold;

— Hole 182 — This core hole was drilled deeper than previous holes on Big Bend and intersected 10.5 metres (from 219.1 metres), or 8.8 metres of true width, grading 12.85 grams gold and 175.31 grams silver. Included was a 5.1-metre (true width) section of 20.01 grams gold and 264.62 grams silver;

— Hole 190 — Drilled to twin an earlier, Russian hole, hole 190 intersected 5.7 metres (true width) grading 84.99 grams gold and 670.57 grams silver, showing excellent correlation to the previous drilling. A second vein was intersected at about 75 metres, below the extent of the previous Russian program, returning 9.95 metres (true width) of 44.95 grams gold and 563.79 grams silver, including 6.24 metres of 71.22 grams gold and 888.28 grams silver.

Bema’s program this year will include 55,000 metres of exploratory and infill drilling, ground geophysics, and surface preparation and construction.

The company is earning a 75% interest in Kupol from the government of Chukotka, and has identified an indicated resource of 2.6 million tonnes grading 22.3 grams gold and 232 grams silver (1.8 million oz. gold and 19.1 million oz. silver), as well as an inferred resource of 7.2 million tonnes of 18.4 grams gold and 243 grams silver (4.2 million oz. gold and 55.9 million oz. silver).

Kupol is an epithermal vein system up to 30 metres wide; it has been defined over 4 km of strike length and is open along strike and at depth.

Bema produces gold from its 79%-owned Julietta mine in northeastern Russia and the wholly owned Petrex Mines in South Africa. The company also holds a half-stake in the Refugio gold mine and 24% of the Cerro Casale gold-copper project, both of which are in northern Chile.

Bema has 356.6 million shares outstanding.