NEWS RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL MINERALS CORPORATION
(formerly Ecuadorian Minerals Corporation)
February 5, 2002
Trading: TSE.IMZ
International Minerals Corporation (formerly Ecuadorian Minerals Corporation) is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement with private investors which will provide gross funds to the Company of Cdn$5,040,000 (approximately US$3.15 million). Under the agreed-upon terms, the Company will issue a total of 5,600,000 units at a price of Cdn$0.90 per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one half share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share for two years at Cdn$1.10 for the first year and Cdn$1.30 for the second year. An arm’s length finder’s fee of 5% of gross proceeds is payable in cash upon closing of the placement, which is expected to take place by March 1, 2002. The financing and the finder’s fee are subject to regulatory approval.
Proceeds from the financing will be used principally for drilling at the Beroen gold-silver project in Ecuador, for additional exploration work at the Vetaspata gold project in Peru, for other exploration activities in Peru and Ecuador, for new project evaluations in South America and internationally, and for working capital for general corporate purposes.
A brief summary of the Company’s principal projects is provided below:
Beroen, Ecuador
In late 2000, the Company announced an in-house calculated inferred resource estimate of approximately 1.1 million gold ounces and 7.6 million silver ounces for the Alejandra and Dorada Zones (see table below), with significant potential for additional mineralization along strike and at depth. The Company also completed a 30m long exploration tunnel (adit) across the Alejandra Zone that reported average uncut grades of 22 g/t gold and 216 g/t silver from 66 samples, including 4.5m at 83 g/t gold and 1,060 g/t silver and 1.2m at 87 g/t gold and 707 g/t silver. Individual assay values range from 0.3 to 159 g/t gold and 9 to 1,450 g/t silver.
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Gold Grade (g/t) |
Silver Grade (g/t) |
Gold
(ozs)
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Silver (ozs)
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Alejandra
(North and South) Includes:
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| Dorada (North and South) |
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| TOTAL |
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1,072,421 | 7,591,279 |
A further exploration program at Beroen is expected to start in March 2002 and will comprise additional core drilling (4,000 to 5,000m), additional underground exploration (150-300m), metallurgical test work and preliminary engineering studies with a view to producing a basic pre-feasibility study on the Beroen deposit(s). The primary focus will be to expand and test the continuity of the high grade mineralization in the Alejandra North Zone and its northeast extension, and to test for the possibility of additional “blind” mineralization in the area, both along strike and at depth. Further drilling will also be carried out in the Dorada Zone.
Vetaspata, Peru
Both Company management and independent outside companies that have reviewed the project, consider Vetaspata to be a unique style of high-grade, sediment-hosted gold mineralization within a series of stacked, gold-bearing horizons (“mantos”). The Company’s initial core drilling program (19 holes totaling 1,729m) completed in December 1999 showed the manto bodies to extend over a broad area (800m by 550m) and to occur as a multiple stacked system. Best intercepts were in drill hole VC-6 and included 14.4 g/t gold over 1.8m (including 0.8m at 24.4 g/t gold) together with a further manto horizon carrying 28.8 g/t gold over 0.8m.
Detailed underground rock panel sampling during 2000 (a total of 267 samples including the results of the Company’s previous underground rock sampling program in 1998), provided an average, uncut gold grade of 17.2 g/t (175 samples) at a 5 g/t gold cut-off. At a 10 g/t gold cut-off, an average uncut grade of 25.9 g/t gold was obtained (93 samples). Average thickness of manto sampled was approximately 1m.
Additional exploration work will be carried out in late 2002 to further evaluate the extent of the manto mineralization with a view to additional drilling in early 2003.
Gaby, Ecuador
Based on independent prefeasibilty studies carried out in 1997 and 1998, the project has an inferred resource estimate in excess of 5 million ounces and is presently Ecuador’s largest undeveloped open-pittable gold deposit. The project is on hold pending higher gold prices.
General
Following the closing of the financing, as part of the Company’s strategy of enhancing its portfolio of gold projects, a number of quality gold projects will be evaluated (both in South America and internationally) that have been brought to the Company’s attention over the past year or so. These projects have been targeted as having potential for unusually high gold grades, low production costs and high profitability, even at current gold prices.
Stephen J. Kay, President and CEO
The Toronto Stock Exchange neither approves nor disapproves the information contained in this News Release.
For additional information, contact Investor Relations at Tel: (480) 483-9932 or Fax: (480) 483-9926.