CALGARY, ALBERTA - Prize Mining Corporation ("Prize") (TSXV:PRZ) is pleased to announce that excellent progress is being made on processing the 10,000 tonne gold-rich bulk sample from the Yellowjacket Zone of its Atlin Gold Property, BC. A total of 2142 tonnes have been milled to date in 9 sample blocks with a range of weights from 199 to 321 tonnes (average is 238 tonnes). The milling process has produced a total of 17.593 tonnes of concentrate from the nine blocks, which represents an average of 0.82% of the initial block weight. This concentrate is then further concentrated on a Diester table, producing a clean, high-grade gold concentrate plus an intermediate-grade gold concentrate. Table concentrates have returned an average weight of 21 kilograms per block. A portion of the high-grade gold table cut for two of the blocks (A27 and B27) has been smelted on site, producing a 6.842 kilogram (220 ounce) gold bar. A bullion assay of the gold fineness of the bar, and hence its value, is pending.
The gold bar was produced from a portion of clean table concentrate collected from Blocks A27 and B27, with the majority of the table concentrate still remaining, requiring further clean up and de-magnetizing to enable this concentrate to be poured into additional gold bars. This is also true of the table concentrates from the other 250 tonne blocks processed to date. The block concentrate that represents middlings is re-processed over the magnetic separator with the non-magnetic portion reporting to the high or intermediate grade concentrate. The magnetic portion is retained as a magnetic gold concentrate for shipment to smelter. The following table relates block weights with concentration amounts.
| Block # |
Dry Block
Weigh (tonnes) |
Concentrate
Weight (tonnes) |
Table Concentrate
(kilograms) |
Magnetic Concentrate
(kilograms) |
| A15 |
243.200 |
1.406 |
25.2 |
47.3 |
| A16 |
255.600 |
1.391 |
7.5 |
48.2 |
| A25 |
199.025 |
1.781 |
1.9 |
20.9 |
| A26 |
321.280 |
2.715 |
18.7 |
20.8 |
| A27 |
263.553 |
1.599 |
36.4 |
20.1 |
| A28 |
223.529 |
2.781 |
17.3 |
21.8 |
| A29 |
217.868 |
1.751 |
18.0 |
35.0 |
| B27 |
204.166 |
1.914 |
36.1 |
18.6 |
| C27 |
213.830 |
2.255 |
58.6 |
19.5 |
The 10,000 tonne gold-rich bulk sample is being run through a Knelson designed processing plant as forty individual blocks averaging approximately 250 tonnes. In order to calculate gold content of each block, full gold cleanup is done at the end of each block run. Over the past week Prize has completed processing the very high grade gold-rich Blocks B27 and C27. Blocks A33 and A21 have been grizzlied and crushed to 2 inch minus in preparation to begin feeding into the processing plant. C21 will be the 11th "official" block processed in 2008.
The much anticipated Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) Mill arrived on site last week and is currently being set up for implementation into the existing ball mill and concentrator circuit. A millright was on site for three days to ensure proper alignment of the mill and gears. Once welding of feed and discharge shutes is completed the SAG mill will be fully functional and will allow for a two to three-fold increase in block production.
Weekly updates will be provided by news release during the course of the Yellowjacket Zone bulk sample (trial mining) program.
Additional details and information regarding past work conducted on Prize's Atlin Property is set out in past news releases issued and technical reports published by Prize, all of which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com or visit the Prize Mining Corporation website at www.prizemining.com.
QUALITY ASSURANCE /QUALITY CONTROL (QA/QC)Prize follows a rigorous Quality Assurance/Quality Control program consisting of inserting standards, blanks and duplicates into the sample stream submitted to ACME Laboratory Ltd. for analyses.
Ms. Linda Dandy, P.Geo., the project supervisor of Prize's trial mining program on the Yellowjacket Zone of the Atlin Gold Property, is Prize's nominated Qualified Person responsible for monitoring the supervision and quality control of the programs completed within the Atlin Gold Property. Ms. Dandy has reviewed and verified the technical information contained in this news release.