Mount Polley looks to grow for Imperial Metals

Vancouver – Continuing exploration at the Mount Polley open pit copper-gold mine in central British Columbia is finding exactly what Imperial Metals (III-T) seeks: high grade intercepts.

At Mount Polley a central mills churns through almost 18,000 tonnes of ore daily, sourced from three open pits. Two are low grade; the high-grade Wight pit is almost depleted.

To source new high grade and expand resources in general, Imperial is drilling three new zones at Mount Polley and all three are returning well mineralized intercepts. In the Pond zone, which sits 1 km southeast of the mill, drill hole 22 probed the downdip extension of the skarn mineralization discovered by shallower drill holes. The core returned 75.6 metres grading 1.16% copper, 0.42 gram gold per tonne, and 11.7 grams silver per tonne from 198 metres depth, including 8.1 metres of 6.07% copper, 1.26 grams gold, and 67.32 grams silver.

The Pond zone is the only area on the Mount Polley property where skarn mineralization has been discovered and it represents a new exploration target type at the mine.

At the Boundary zone, which adjoins the Wight pit on its western side, drilling on the main magnetite breccia provided promising results. Hole 51, collared in the northwest corner of the zone, cut 64.5 metres grading 1.42% copper and 1.55 grams gold from 42 metres depth. Nearby, hole 54 returned 0.5% copper and 0.81 gram gold over 32.1 metres starting 30 metres downhole, and then returned 38 metres grading 2.16% copper and 1.6 grams gold from 175 metres depth. And hole 56, designed to test the area between the Wight pit and the Boundary zone, hit 13.7 metres of 4.29% copper and 1.42 grams gold.

And on the eastern side of the Wight pit continued exploration has revealed an untapped area now called the Kidney zone. Hole 246, punched into the pit wall, returned 3.57% copper, 1.11 grams gold, and 33.7 grams silver over 27 metres starting 15 metres downhole. Similarly, hole 251 cut 15 metres of 3.24% copper, 0.25 gram gold, and 29.13 grams silver. And hole 247 hit 35 metres grading 2.38% copper, 0.7 gram gold, and 27.84 grams silver.

Investors were impressed by the high-grade intercepts and rewarded Imperial with several days of share price gains. In three trading days the company’s share price rose $1.03 or 38% to close at $3.75. Imperial has a 52-week trading range of $2.38 to $17.65 and has 32.5 million shares issued.

Imperial restarted operations at Mount Polley in 2005; the mill had been on care and maintenance for four years because of low metal prices. The mine is 56 km northeast of Williams Lake.

As of January 2008 the property held 55.6 million tonnes in proven and probable reserves grading 0.357% copper, 0.298 gram gold, and 0.661 gram silver. Mine life is currently forecast to 2015 but Imperial has to date demonstrated its ability to replenish reserves as ore is depleted. Annual production sits at over 50 million lbs. copper, almost 35,000 oz. gold, and over 370,000 oz. silver.

Imperial also operates the Huckleberry open pit copper-molybdenum mine in central BC and is exploring the Sterling gold property in Nevada and the Red Chris copper-gold project in northwest BC. In the second quarter of 2008 Imperial had a net income of $44.2 million.