Drilling confirms copper-gold at Afton (May 22, 2003)

Vancouver — DRC Resources (DRC-T) has tabled more results from an ongoing infill drill program at its Afton copper project near Kamloops, British Columbia.

The holes are part of a drill program that is designed to increase the level of confidence for an updated resource calculation as well as a pre-feasibility study. Vancouver-based Behre Dolbear & Company has been hired to perform the study which will focus on the mineral resource, mining methods, mineral processing, and permitting as well as estimate the capital and operating costs associated with the potential development of an underground mining operation.

Hole 2K03-79 was drilled at an angle of minus 83 degrees and was collared near the southwest end of the main zone. DRC reports that the hole appears to have intersected the eastern hanging wall of the mineral zone. The hole intersected 224 metres averaging 1.13% copper, 0.74 gram gold, 0.08 gram palladium and 2.32 grams silver, starting 608 metres down-hole. This included a 120-metre interval that averaged 1.24% copper, 0.85 gram gold, 0.08 gram palladium and 2.5 grams silver, starting 612 metres down-hole.

Hole 2K03-80 was drilled at an angle of minus 90 degrees and was collared midway along the main zone. The hole intersected 208 metres averaging 0.44% copper, 0.31 gram gold, 0.14 gram palladium and 0.99 gram silver, starting 306 metres down-hole.

To date the copper-gold mineralization has been traced over a strike length of 1 km and it remains open beyond the indicated mineral resource boundaries to the northeast and southwest. DRC states that the infill diamond drill program confirms the continuity of the grade of mineralization.

Mineralization is hosted in a steeply plunging body that strikes southwest from the base of the 274-metre-deep open-pit. This structure, known as the Main zone, averages 70 metres wide, 600 metres long and about 775 metres deep. In addition to it, DRC has delineated the Northeast Extension zone, which measures 30 metres wide and is an en echelon continuation of the Main zone.

The Main zone is estimated to have an indicated resource of 34.3 million tonnes grading 1.55% copper, plus 1.14 grams gold, 0.125 gram palladium and 3.42 grams silver per tonne, whereas the Northeast Extension zone has an indicated resource of about 1.1 million tonnes averaging 1.02% copper, 0.86 gram gold, 0.1 gram palladium and 5.49 grams silver. A cutoff grade of 0.5% copper was used for these calculations.

The Afton deposit is in the 35-km-long Iron Mask Batholith at the northwestern end of the Iron Mask pluton. These intrusive rocks consist of Triassic-aged diorites and gabbros hosted in andesitic and basaltic rocks breccias, tuffs, mudstones argillites and limestones of the Nicola Group.