Technical Session Overviews

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006 MORNING & AFTERNOON

CORDILLERAN GEOSCIENCE – NEW DATA AND EXPLORATION IDEAS

Session Chairs: Grant Abbott (Yukon Geological Survey), Lyn Anglin (Geological Survey of Canada), Dave Lefebure (BC Geological Surveys)

This popular session features results from recent mapping and research activities in British Columbia and the Yukon. Cordilleran geoscience experts will discuss the significance of their surveys for mineral exploration and mine development. The focus this year will be regional mapping results from frontier areas, metal exploration targets and economic geology studies. The presentations by staff from the geological surveys of British Columbia, Canada, and the Yukon are conference highlights and the session will include talks from the Geoscience BC program for the first time. The session will also include short reviews of public geoscience activities.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2006 AFTERNOON

BUILDING SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COMMUNITIES AND THE MINERAL SECTOR

Session Chairs: Lena Brommeland (Hunter Dickinson), Sue Craig (NovaGold Resources)

The mineral industry recognizes that support and involvement of local communities is a key contributor to successful mineral exploration, development and operations. Case studies of working relationships between communities and industry will be highlighted. This will be followed by a panel discussion involving community members and industry. The panel discussion will focus on components that may lead to successful working relationships such as: initial contact, being good neighbours, capacity building and managing expectations at different stages of a project.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2006 MORNING & AFTERNOON

PART ONE: 2005 BRITISH COLUMBIA, ALASKA & YUKON EXPLORATION REVIEWS

PART TWO: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA EXPLORATION – A SNAPSHOT REVIEW

Session Chairs: Nicole Adshead-Bell (Dundee Securities), Glen Garratt (Eastfield Resources)

British Columbia exploration has continued to benefit from an injection of investment dollars and broader exposure in the exploration and mining industry over the past two years. This session will provide the traditional British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska exploration reviews followed by a brief review of the Mineral Deposits Research Unit activities and ongoing projects. The remainder of the session will present brief updates on a number of exciting exploration projects in British Columbia. These presentations will focus on recent exploration successes and the potential for new discoveries in British Columbia.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2006 MORNING

UPDATES ON RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CANADA

Session Chairs: Neil Adshead (Passport Capital), Tony Scott (Placer Dome)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2006 AFTERNOON

UPDATES ON ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN CANADA

Session Chairs: Rick Valenta (Fronteer Development Group), Jeff Wilson (Fronteer Development Group)

Canada is the world’s leading destination for exploration due to the attractive geological potential, favourable government policies and low risk profile. The perceived maturity of several Canadian terrains has been used as an argument for investing exploration capital overseas, but companies who view the historic data as an asset and who recognize the high prospectivity have been rewarded by significant drill results on precious metal, base metal, diamond, uranium and coal properties. Explorers in Canada are using the wealth of historic information, new concepts on ore formation, improvements in exploration technology and unique fiscal stimuli to make new discoveries and advance known deposits to a development decision.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006 MORNING

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE THEY LOOKING FOR?

Session Chairs: Gerry Carlson (Copper Ridge Explorations), Nick Carter

It is any junior exploration company’s dream to strike it rich and spark a bidding war amongst major mining companies. Other juniors acquire properties and look for a senior partner at the pre-discovery exploration stage. Still others, with a good exploration idea, look for financial and technical support through a strategic alliance.

But what exactly are the major companies looking for? What are their exploration criteria? What are their minimum target thresholds? What is the nature and structure of deals that they are comfortable with? These are the questions that will be answered by a cross section of senior exploration executives from the world’s largest gold and base metal mining companies.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006 AFTERNOON

EUREKA!

Session Chairs: Rob Brown (Barrick Gold), Jason Dunning (Yukon Zinc)

While on the hunt for new metal sources (which can sometimes be a much hidden path) the geologists will often draw upon their knowledge and the experiences of others from various disciplines, such as geochemistry and geophysics, to build and refine a model that could lead to a discovery. Then, while Striving for Excellence in Exploration, often the market hears Eureka! and a new deposit has been found. As such, we as an Exploration Community should look to our past discoveries in order that we gain a better understanding of how to explore for our next discovery. This session will examine the concepts, methodologies and the thought processes of the geologists running those exploration programs that brought them to that defining moment when they could shout Eureka!