NEWS RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL MINERALS CORPORATION
(formerly Ecuadorian Minerals Corporation)
July 23, 2003
Trading: Toronto: "IMZ", Switzerland: "IMZ", Frankfurt: "IMZ.F"
SCENARIO AT RIO BLANCO GOLD-SILVER PROPERTY, ECUADOR
International Minerals Corporation (“IMC”) is currently evaluating, on a preliminary basis, the technical and economic parameters for a relatively near-term (2005), medium-scale (300 to 400 tonnes per day), underground mining operation for the high-grade portion of the Alejandra zone at IMC’s 100%-held Rio Blanco gold-silver deposit in Ecuador.
Based on IMC’s core drilling programs to date, an internally prepared Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for the high-grade Alejandra North mineralized zone or “shoot” has outlined approximately 553,000 ounces of gold and 4.9 million ounces of silver contained within 1.5 million tonnes of material at average uncut grades of 11.2 g/t gold and 99 g/t silver. This shoot forms part of the overall resource outlined to date at Rio Blanco of 881,000 ounces of gold and 6.7 million ounces of silver contained within 5 million tonnes of material at 5.5 g/t gold and 42 g/t silver (see news release dated December 11, 2002 for more detail).
As delineated so far, the Alejandra North zone measures approximately 500m in length with a vertical dimension varying between 120m and 280m and an average width of approximately 6m (and in places achieves a maximum width of 30m). The mineralized shoot includes notable mineralized widths of 4.5 m at 83.0 g/t gold and 1,060 g/t silver within IMC’s 30m long exploration tunnel/adit (which overall averaged 21.6g/t gold and 216g/t silver), together with drill intercepts of 5.3m at 43.9 g/t gold and 508g/t silver in drill hole BC-50 and 6.0m at 46.7g/t gold and 358g/t silver in drill hole BC-5.
IMC’s internal scoping study is being prepared under the supervision of IMC director/consultant, Dr. Barry Rayment, IMC’s designated “qualified person”, together with input from other mining and metallurgical consultants, utilizing comparable data from similar-sized mining operations in Peru and elsewhere in the world. The internal IMC study is expected to be completed in August and will then be reviewed by an experienced independent mining engineering company. A decision will then be taken by IMC as to whether to proceed to the next step of fast-tracking an independently-audited internal feasibility study, financed primarily by existing funds. This study will involve reserve definition drilling, underground development and metallurgical, engineering and environmental studies over a period of approximately one year, with a view to making a production decision and arranging production financing for a commercial production date in late 2005, utilizing primarily independent contractors for the overall mining operation. Management of IMC envisages that capital costs for such an operation could be funded entirely by equity rather than a debt/equity scenario.
Stephen J. Kay, President and CEO
The Toronto, Swiss and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges neither approve nor disapprove the information contained in this News Release.
For additional information, contact Investor Relations at Tel: (480) 483-9932 or Fax: (480) 483-9926.