New zone uncovered at Golden Bear mine

News from the Golden Bear mine in northwestern British Columbia has taken a turn for the better with the discovery of a new zone of gold mineralization during ramp tunneling to the Grizzly zone.

Owner North American Metals (VSE) hit a gold-bearing fault structure in a remuck station at the 500-metre point of the decline. The structure returned a grade of 27 grams gold per tonne over a true width of 3.9 metres. The company is driving a decline 75 metres into the hangingwall of the Grizzly zone in order to conduct further drilling. The decline measures 800 metres long and is being driven at a 15 angle. Technical problems associated with surface drilling forced the company to proceed underground after intersecting the Grizzly with three holes. The best of these returned a 15.5-metre intersection grading 14.4 grams.

The new zone, dubbed the Cub, is separate from the Grizzly structure and may correlate with the Main Bear fault. The Main Bear hosted most of the gold mineralization in the previously mined Main zone, about 400 metres above. From startup in 1990 to June, 1994, Main Bear totaled 419,000 tonnes of refractory ore grading 15.4 grams.

Cub mineralization is also refractory, and the potential size of the zone is not known. The nearest drill hole to the structure was about 75 metres above; it contained no gold mineralization, leaving the zone open downdip and to the north.

Soon, the company expects to start a 9-hole underground program to test the Cub zone. Drilling on the Grizzly is to begin sometime in November. Meanwhile, surface drilling on the Ursa zone, a few kilometres to the north, is continuing to return gold values. The zone now measures 100 metres along strike and up to 75 metres downdip. It remains open to the north, south and at depth.

Wheaton River Minerals (TSE) holds 81.4% of North American Metals’ outstanding shares, as well as more than $60 million of its long-term debt. Significant intersections from Ursa are as follows:

Hole Interval Width Gold

(m) (m) (g/tonne)

259 113.1-124.4 11.3 8.7

260 16.5-25.3 8.8 4.3

261 44.7-51.5 6.8 1.1

262 47.2-67.1 19.9 9.8

and 80.2-87.5 7.3 3.3